Born with Cerulean Eyes
by ZariGS
Summary: In an parallel universe, Namikaze Minato had two wives; Uzumaki Kushina and Hyuuga Naomi, both of whom bore him daughters. However, while Kushina managed to survive the Kyuubi attack, Naomi did not. Left without a mother, Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru was raised and trained by the Hyuuga clan. This is her tale. Fem!Hyuuga!Naruto, Pairing undecided, Rated M for general freedom.
1. A day in the life

A/N: I know what you're thinking (that being something along the lines of 'WTF OMG why are you starting another fic?'), and my answer is the same as when I started Requiem of the Fallen. Like a lot of other authors, while writing my ficlets plot bunnies pop up occasionally, which is the case you see here. Unfortunately, this particular plot bunny made me write out a whole family tree PLUS this fic to satisfy my curiosity. Now, that's not to say I've given up writing my other two Naruto ficlets, but until I can get this concept out of my system updates to the other two will have to come later.

Changes from Canon:

~Uchiha Massacre never happened

~Graduation age for the Academy is 16, not 12

~A few other things that you'll just have to read to find out what they are

Anyways, here's the key and disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other anime/manga that I draw inspiration from.

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

**Note:** Just a little intro/explanation about this fanfic, one of the things that always bugged me about the Naruto Manga/Anime was the existence of the Clan Restoration Act (correct me if I'm wrong?), and yet the Namikaze 'clan' only had Minato and Kushina as a pair. Whether this was because they all died out, Minato was an orphan, or whatever, this is basically the case in every ficlet that has the MinaKushi pairing, whether it be the main one or otherwise. Well this is where this fic draws its basis from, but first a little relevant background information. In canon Hyuuga Hizashi and Hiashi were brothers, with the latter being born first, and subsequently being put in the main branch of the Hyuuga Clan. This relation stays the same here, but the change happens on Hiashi's wife's side of the family (Henceforth Hiashi's wife will be referred to as Hitomi). In this ficlet Hitomi has a sister (Naomi), who is/was married to Minato (in addition to Kushina being his wife), hence the application of the C.R.A.

As for the generation after Minatos (Naruto's canon generation), Hinata, Hanabi, and Neji all still exist, and Minato/Kushina's daughter (Natsuki) is still the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. But this story's heroine (Female Naruto) is none of the above.

* * *

Story Start:

_Sunday, 11:00, Konohagakure no Sato; Hyuuga Clan Compound, Private Training Grounds _

It was a bright sunny morning, and, if one were to listen carefully from outside the Hyuuga Clan Compound walls, it would have sounded like a battle royale was taking place in the Hyuuga's private training grounds. However, while there _was _a spar going on, it was a far cry from what it sounded like. In fact, there were only two people going at it; Neji and Naru Hyuuga, both established prodigies at the Gentle Fist style of hand-to-hand combat, though Naru was a year younger than Neji.

Currently, Naru was on the defensive, making full use of her feminine flexibility to weave in between her opponent's attacks like a fish swimming through water. Twisting her torso to avoid a right-handed palm thrust, she bent backwards so all four of her hands and feet were on the ground, seamlessly dodging the followup high sweep-kick from Neji. Then, in a highly acrobatic display she pushed off the ground, performing a handspring whilst simultaneously managing to clock her sparring partner in the chin with the tip of her left foot.

Perspiration glistened on her forehead as she arched through the air, her battle sandals kicking up a small amount of dust as she landed in a crouch. Hastily drawing some shuriken from the holster on her right thigh, she let them fly, forming hand seals immediately after the final shuriken had left her hand.

_"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!"_ She called out, multiplying the few shuriken she had thrown into a wall of razor-sharp steel.

Of course, since she was facing Neji, Naru had no doubt that he would block her technique with _Kaiten_; in fact she was planning on him doing just that. But before she could charge in and go on the offensive, the sound of clapping reached her ears.

Standing off on the sidelines was none other than Hyuuga Hiashi, the Hyuuga Clan Head, Neji's uncle and Naru's adoptive father.

"That's enough for now, you two." Hiashi called out while walking towards the two young combatants, still clapping. "Though I must say, that was a very impressive spar. Although Naru, had your foot not connected with Neji's chin, your flank would have been left open while in the air. A small mistake, but an important one nonetheless. I won't tell you not to do that maneuver again, as it's good to branch out in your techniques, but next time you should focus on drawing some kunai or shuriken while in the air, rather than after landing."

"Hai Tou-san..." Naru said with a sigh as she accepted one of the two towels he handed to them.

"So what's the score now?" Hiashi asked, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled. Glancing sidelong at Neji for a moment while they trudged back towards the interior of the compound, she turned back to the Hyuuga clan head.

"We're tied now; 27 wins to 27 wins and 54 ties I think."

"It's 28 to 28 actually, though you're correct about the ties..." Neji said, a small smile popping onto his face as Naru stuck out her tongue at him playfully. Hiashi merely shook his head at their antics.

"Well, regardless of what the scores are, I'm happy with both of your growth. Neji, Hizashi wanted you for something; you'll have to ask him what that something is, though, as he didn't bother to tell me." Neji nodded, handing his towel back to the Hyuuga clan head before heading off towards the branch family side of the compound.

"Now as for you, Naru, why don't you go cool off and take a shower? I'm sure Hitomi and the branch family members will have lunch ready by the time you get cleaned up."

"Hai Hiashi..."

* * *

_15 minutes later..._

Naru sighed, closing her eyes as she let the shower water caress her scalp and backside. A small smile played across her face as she ran her hands through her golden blonde hair, arching her back to make sure each and every strand got properly wet. Once satisfied with her hair's state of being, she opened her pupil-less, cerulean Byakugan eyes, grabbing her personal bottle of shampoo from where it lay at the side of the shower stall. Humming tunelessly to herself, she let her thoughts drift as she lathered the shampoo into her hair.

Hinata had caught her before she started her shower, letting her know that Hiashi had invited guests over for lunch. Somehow Naru couldn't help but sigh once more, letting the cascading water rinse away what soap still covered her lithe body. Having guests over for a meal wasn't a bad thing in itself, but, knowing her father, it was bound to be someone important. Now, while Naru wasn't exactly a fan of formal gatherings, she wasn't about to blow this occasion off. It was merely...troublesome, as her classmate Nara Shikamaru would say.

Shivering slightly as she stepped out of the shower stall and onto the cool bathroom floor, Naru proceeded to bind her perky C-cup breasts in place with medical tape. While not exactly a standard procedure when combined with her formal kimono, she found that it was better than the alternative; it was preferable to have the tape then to have her nipples stiffen in slight arousal every time the fabric of her kimono brushed against them. Some girls might have liked the feeling, but she found it distracting when trying to hold a conversation.

Anyways, once she had slipped into her orange flowered kimono, she tied it closed with a matching orange sash about her waist. Giving herself a once-over to make sure her clothing was presentable, she paused in front of the ornate mirror hanging above the sink in order to place her shoulder-length blonde locks into a neat bun. Completing the ensemble with two chopsticks between her scalp and the rest of her hair, she sighed slightly. Next on her list of things to do was cosmetics; a touch of eye shadow to the corners of her eyes, and a light smattering of lipstick across her pink lips. Normally she'd skip the cosmetics entirely, opting to leave her hair down as well, but with guests coming over for lunch she had to look her best.

Typically lunch was a serve yourself kind of affair at the Hyuuga clan compound, so it was with some apprehension that Naru slipped on her outdoor sandals, before sliding open the traditional paper door and stepping out onto the central patio. To her surprise, however, the 'guests' Hiashi had invited were none other than the main family of the Uchiha clan; namely the patriarch Fugaku, his wife Mikoto, and their two sons Itachi and Sasuke. Now, unlike the elders of the Hyuuga clan, who were ingrained in the old ways, Naru held no animosity towards any of the Uchiha family. Sure, she enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Sasuke in the academy, but there was no hostility between her specifically and the Uchihas. Granted, this was because of the way she was raised, but that is another story entirely.

Also seated at various intervals around the circular table in the center of the patio were Hiashi, Hitomi, Hinata and Hanabi, each wearing splendid outfits that accentuated their eyes and hairstyles. Seeing as she was the last one to arrive, Naru bowed and apologized for her lateness during a lull in the conversations going around before taking the open seat in between Itachi and Sasuke.

"Now that everyone is here, I'd like to propose a toast." Hiashi said after a few more minutes of light banter. "To peace and prosperity!"

"To peace and prosperity! Kanpai!"

After clinking glasses with her two neighbors Naru took a hearty swig of milk (A/N: Hanabi/Naru/Sasuke/Hinata haven't graduated the academy yet, so no sake just yet), before serving herself a medium-sized plate full of food. Since this wasn't exactly a special occasion (other than being a friendly get-together), almost all of the various foodstuffs were supposed to be served cold, with only the roasted meats and vegetables being served hot. Still, it was a hearty affair, what with the platters of various hot and cold foods being placed on a multi-tiered platform in the center of the circular table. Said platform was also capable of being spun, so everyone could pick and choose what foods they wanted without having to get up from where they were seated.

As was her nature at these kinds of gatherings, Naru didn't speak much during the meal, instead opting to quietly eat and listen as her neighbors and those across from her wove tales of adventures they'd had and so forth. Of course, she'd reply if spoken to directly, but otherwise she was content to merely bask in the presence of her friends and family.

Everyone was about finished with their respective meals when Fugaku turned to Hiashi and whispered something in his ear. Naru wasn't close enough to hear what the Uchiha Patriarch was saying, but it became apparent soon after, as Fugaku stood up after getting a confirming nod from the Hyuuga clan head. The onyx-eyed man waited until he had everyone's undivided attention before speaking, his deep voice carrying easily across the patio.

"Sorry for interrupting whatever conversations you all had going, but I'd just like to take the time to say thank you to Hiashi and his family for making this get-together possible."

His opening words were met with a torrent of applause.

"Now I know our families have had their differences in the past..." Everyone else nodded, conceding his point. "...But it's gatherings like these that help bring us closer together, if not as family then at least as friends."

Fugaku paused in his speech, looking over both families to give the illusion that he was meeting everyone's eyes.

"I won't bore you all with the finer details of why I think this is so, as that would be needless rambling. However, there may come a time when some or all of us head off to war, be it against Kumo, Iwa, or even our ally Suna. It is during such times that we must put aside our differences and work together. So it is with great pleasure that I say these gatherings are progress in the right direction."

Here he leaned down to converse a little bit with Hiashi and Hitomi, before standing back up with a wide grin plastered on his face.

"...And it seems we're on for next Sunday for dinner, this time at the Uchiha compound!"

This time, _everyone_ cheered.

* * *

_Sunday 21:30, Konohagakure no Sato; Hyuuga Clan Compound, Naru's Bedroom  
_

Naru hastily covered up a yawn, a tired smile gracing her face as she trudged upstairs, slipping out of her kimono and into some sleepwear once she reached her bedroom. The merrymaking with the Uchihas had lasted almost all the way until dinner time, so there was little doubt in her mind that she would sleep soundly tonight. Still, she had her graduation exam at the Academy tomorrow, so it wouldn't do to be lacking in the sleep department, hence the reason she was heading to bed at merely nine-thirty.

As she was crawling under the covers, however, she couldn't help but feel that life was about to get a whole lot more interesting, if the conversation she'd had earlier with Itachi was anything to go by...

_Flashback no Jutsu_

_All nine of them had finished up their respective meals and were now mingling with their peers, discussing commonplace topics such as the weather and so forth. Naru and Hinata had opted to clear away the dirty platters and plates from the table, laughing and chatting quietly with each other while they worked. Normally such a task would be delegated and left to the Branch family members, but Naru and Hinata had grown up learning to take care of themselves, since most likely one or more of Hiashi's daughters would be married off into another clan for political reasons. While neither one of the girls liked the idea of such a marriage happening, there wasn't anything they could really do about it, such was the world they had been born into.  
_

_Anyways, after completing the mundane task of cleaning the dirty dishes, both girls trooped into the foyer where the Hyuuga's guests were being entertained. Here they split up; Hinata walked over to where her parents were engaged in a discussion with Fugaku and Mikoto, while Naru wandered over to where Itachi and Sasuke were playing a friendly game of shogi. The blonde-haired Hyuuga watched in contemplative silence as the two Uchiha boys thought over each move they made, at least until Itachi broached the silence with a question in her direction.  
_

_"I don't suppose I could trouble you for a game after we're finished here?"  
_

_Naru merely nodded, smiling slightly as Sasuke groaned when he lost a piece to Itachi's superior strategies. When the two boys finished their game Naru took Sasuke's place, the younger boy walking off, presumably to pester his parents about some matter or another. While Itachi rearranged the pieces back into their starting positions the young Hyuuga took the time to study her opponent. She'd been around Sasuke often enough, as they were in the same Academy class, but Itachi was something of a mystery to her. She knew he was what many considered to be a prodigy of unparalleled genius in the ninja arts, but that was about it when it came to what she knew about him.  
_

_Itachi, meanwhile, studied the young Hyuuga girl in front of him out of the corner of his eye. Like her, he knew little about his shogi opponent, only that she was the daughter of Namikaze Minato and Hyuuga Naomi, the latter of whom had died during the Kyuubi attack sixteen years ago. As for why she was raised by the Hyuugas and not her blood father, well...he had a hunch that Minato was extremely busy with his duties as Hokage, not to mention having to train Natsuki to use the Kyuubi's chakra. As far as Itachi could tell, things had happened the way they had to prevent Naru from becoming neglected by Minato and Kushina.  
_

_"So...do you want the first move, or should I...?" He asked after all the pieces were in their respective places on the board.  
_

_"Ano...why don't you start."  
_

_And so their game began. While they played they chatted about various subjects, ranging from their respective hobbies, to favorite foods, to the ninja arts. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on one's perspective, the two were about evenly matched in their shogi prowess, so the game was taking far longer than Itachi's match against Sasuke. In fact, it was taking long enough that they'd managed to draw an audience; almost everyone who remained in the foyer was watching their match, mostly because Itachi and Naru had been sitting in the same positions for over half an hour.  
_

_Like all good things, however, their battle of the minds had to come to an end, when Naru used a pincer attack to force Itachi into forfeiting. Chuckling slightly, the elder Uchiha stood up, offering a hand to his opponent, who gratefully accepted the help in rising to her feet.  
_

_"That was a very, very good match; it's not often I can find someone that can beat me in shogi. Well, someone who's not a Nara, at least." He said wryly, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly as he smiled. Naru merely shook her head, returning his smile.  
_

_"Well I'm glad I gave you a challenge. After all, it's not often I get to face someone around my skill level in this household."  
_

_"Oh? What about Hiashi? Surely he has the experience necessary to give you a good match?" Itachi asked.  
_

_"Sadly, Tou-san is too busy most of the time. Hyuuga clan matters and all that." Naru said with a frown.  
_

_"Well that's a shame; you've got a bright mind on your shoulders. Perhaps we can play again next Sunday?"  
_

_"I'd like that, actually. Though I can only hope that graduating from the Academy doesn't throw a wrench in our plans, what with missions and whatever."  
_

_This time it was Itachi's turn to shake his head.  
_

_"That won't be a problem; you'll most likely be doing training exercises for the first week after getting your Jonin instructor, so he or she can gauge your team's respective skill levels." He paused for a moment, tilting his head to the side in thought. "...Actually, I take that back. You _could_ do some D-rank missions in the first week, but only in the later days. Unless you wind up with a really good squad, I would say you'd start doing missions approximately four days into being a newly minted team, five at the latest. And since you need at least twenty D-ranks completed to do a C-rank..."  
_

_"Right, I won't be leaving the village on a mission anytime soon."  
_

_"Exactly."  
_

___Flashback no Jutsu_ Kai  


Unfortunately, remembering said conversation filled Naru with excitement over what would come on the morrow, enough so that she had some trouble falling asleep. Just thinking about passing her genin exams made her giddy, although she wasn't looking forward to the horrors of D-rank missons in the slightest. Still, with perseverance and time she knew she was capable of being a splendid ninja.

It was with that thought in the forefront of her mind that she finally managed to drift off to sleep, a large smile plastered on her face...

* * *

A/N: There you have it, the first chapter of my new plot bunny inspired naruto fanfic. Whether you love it or hate it, if you could follow the three R's of writing (READ/RAVE/REVIEW), that would make me one happy author. While I admit that not much happened this chapter, if you look closely you can see the seeds of a potential romance budding, though only time will tell if said romance will bear fruit.

Anyways, next up in my quest to continue writing is chapter two of this new fic, which will contain the genin exams, followed by chapter three of Requiem of the Fallen, both of which are about a quarter of the way completed as of 5/29/12. After that, well, we'll just have to see how things play out.

Here's to the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	2. The Genin Exams

Hello all, and welcome to the second chapter of Born with Cerulean Eyes! I know some of you might have been disappointed with the events covered last chapter, so I will try my best to make it up to you with this one, which covers the genin exams. Although just as a general guideline this won't be a heavily action-oriented fanfic, which is why it is listed as romance first and adventure second. However, while that may be the case there will still be tension between the different characters, starting after this chappy, though how exactly that tension will be expressed you will have to keep reading to find out._  
_

Before we begin, I'd just like to make it clear that I don't own Naruto, and most likely never will. Anyways, here's the key to get you all started.

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

_Story Start:  
_

_Monday 07:00, Konohagakure no Sato; Hyuuga Clan Compound, Naru's Bedroom  
_

It was to the sounds of birds chirping that Naru awoke, the giddiness from the night before making sure that she got up bright and early. Blinking back the haze of sleep, she let out a tired yawn, reaching her arms above her head in a nice morning stretch. Once satisfied that she wasn't going to immediately fall back asleep, she pulled back the covers, grabbing a few sets of clothes before trudging off towards the bathroom to take a shower.

After freshening up and drying herself off, she pulled on a clean pair of panties, then replaced the bindings around her chest. Pondering for a moment whether to go with a matching color outfit or one with complementary tones, Naru eventually decided on the latter, sliding her way into a white short-sleeved shirt and a pair of light grey shorts soon afterwards. Giving her hair a once-over with a comb, she pulled the golden strands into a loose ponytail at the nape of her neck. While she probably could have let her hair hang loose for the written portion of the genin exams today, Naru had little doubt that keeping it that way would hinder her in the taijutsu portion of the exams, hence the ponytail. Anyways, to complete her outfit she wrapped her ankles in what remained of the current roll of medical tape. While the Gentle Fist style was comprised mostly of hand strikes, it didn't hurt to be prepared in case she needed to pull off a few kicks, as evidenced by her spar with Neji the day before.

Pulling on her favorite pair of slippers, she sauntered downstairs, making a beeline for the kitchen when her stomach rumbled. Nodding absentmindedly at her adoptive father—Hiashi was already seated at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee—she had a quick debate with herself over what she wanted for breakfast, eventually deciding on having a little bit of everything. Grabbing some of the leftover sliced fruit from yesterday's gathering to munch on, she proceeded to set up a pan on the stove in order to fry herself up an omelet. While she waited for the stove-top to heat up, Naru also poured herself a small bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice, making sure she got at least one serving of the required grains to keep herself healthy.

It was at this point that Hinata and Hanabi came trudging down the stairs, both still dressed in their night clothes. Rolling her eyes and grumbling about how her sisters loved their sleep, Naru turned back to the stove, checking to see if the pan she'd set out was hot enough to start frying her eggs.

"Morning Hinata, Hanabi." she said, smiling slightly at their rather garbled replies. While slightly bothersome, it always amused her how unintelligent her sisters could sound before they woke up in the mornings. Sure, they might be perfect angels during the greater portion of the day, but as for the time period before breakfast they might as well have been perfect _sloths _as far as she was concerned.

Clicking her tongue in satisfaction when she saw that her eggs were pleasantly sizzling, Naru took a sip of her orange juice, taking the time to mull over what she wanted to do after the genin exams.

'Most likely I'll be celebrating with friends and family, provided I pass.' She thought wryly. It was no secret that the Academy curriculum had been getting a little slack during peacetime, so she wasn't really worried about her chances of failing. 'Besides, even if I don't exactly ace the written portion I still have the taijutsu part and the academy three, both of which are relatively easy.'

Idly noting that her eggs had become nicely browned while she was lost in thought, Naru turned off the stove, scooping her omelet out of the frying pan and onto the plate she'd gotten out. After situating herself at the kitchen table and saying the usual 'itadakimasu', she picked up her fork and knife and daintily dug into the food she'd assembled for herself.

While not the most pleasant of times, mostly due to her sisters being ungrateful sleepyheads in the morning, breakfast was by far Naru's favorite meal. After all, what better way to start your day than to spend time eating and conversing with your family? Sure, there was conversations to be had during lunch and dinner time, but breakfast held a special place in her heart. Speaking of conversations, though, Hiashi chose this moment to speak up.

"Hinata, Hanabi, while I won't complain about your state of dress, just remember that you only have an hour until the Academy starts, so use that time wisely. As for you, Naru, since you're already dressed and ready would you be able to come with me to my office? I've got something I need to discuss with you in private."

"Hai Tou-san, let me just change out of my slippers and into my sandals and I'll meet you there."

* * *

_Monday 07:45, Konohagakure no Sato; Hyuuga Clan Compound, Clan Head's Office  
_

Naru stood, hands clasped behind her back, in the center of Hiashi's small office. Said clan head sat directly opposite her behind his desk, his fingers laced together in a contemplative pose. Deciding that there was no time like the present to get things done, he asked the question that had been bugging him for several days.

"What are your thoughts on arranged marriages, Naru? I don't want the answer you've been taught, I want your personal answer specifically."

Said girl took her time in thinking over her response, knowing full well that her answer could potentially determine part or all of her future.

"...I guess I find them...acceptable, for lack of a better term. I mean, I don't particularly like the idea of marrying without love between the two spouses, as that can lead to a lot of headaches in one way or another, but I can see why such things would be necessary in a political sense. Why do you ask, if I may inquire?"

Hiashi sighed, closing his eyes to mask his frustration. It took a few minutes, but once he was sufficiently calm he opened them again, resting his gaze on the girl he'd come to love like a daughter, even if she wasn't his daughter by blood.

"I ask because you are the child of two of Konoha's most important clans; the Namikaze and the Hyuuga. As such you are basically royalty, if one were to think of such things in the literal sense. This, of course, makes you a very powerful bargaining chip when it comes to the subject of alliances, even if it is only between clans in this very village. While I as a father am quite revolted that one of my baby girls could be used in such a way, I as a clan head know that such things can sometimes be necessary to preserve the peace."

"I...see."

"But I digress; such a bargain has not been made, and will not be made if I have anything to say about it. I only wish for the best for you; however, I felt it necessary to bring this matter to your attention, so you can have time to mull it over and make your peace with it."

"Thank you, Tou-san. I...I can't say I'm happy that such a possibility exists for me, as I've always dreamed of marrying for nothing less than love, but I will do my best regardless of whether such a matter comes to pass or not."

"I wouldn't dream of asking for anything more from you. Anyways, that's all I needed to talk to you about, so why don't you go grab your sisters and head off to the Academy? I'll be there later for the graduation ceremony; just be sure to do your best in the exams today."

"Hai Tou-san, I will make you proud."

With that parting remark Naru bowed, excusing herself from Hiashi's office soon after. The Hyuuga clan head watched her leave, his heart heavy with regret. He could only hope that Naru would take this matter in stride, like she had with everything else in her life...

* * *

_Monday 08:30, Konohagakure no Sato; Ninja Academy, Outside the Academy  
_

Half an hour after Naru's meeting with Hiashi, we find the three Hyuuga girls waiting on the outskirts of the Academy grounds for said building to open for the day. Normally classes would start at eight-thirty sharp, but, seeing as the final year teachers had a lot to set up on this particular day, Naru, Hinata and Hanabi weren't worried when eight-thirty came and went. Instead they merely chatted with their classmates as they arrived, taking the time to enjoy such a luxury while it lasted. When the Academy _did _open, however, it was with some trepidation that the final year students trooped towards their classroom, where the written portion of the exam would take place.

The examinees' room was arranged like they had come to expect during test-taking periods; cardboard barriers had been erected around each desk, blocking the students' view of each others' test papers. Said papers were lying face down, with the words 'do not turn over until instructed to do so' written in large, friendly bold red letters on the side facing upwards. After seating themselves around the room according to no specific pattern, the class full of clan heirs waited with bated breaths for their teachers to walk through the doorway.

Fifteen minutes later they were given the go-ahead by Mizuki, who notified them that Iruka was still helping clear off the field behind the Academy for the taijutsu portion of their exam. And so, gently flipping over their tests the class started scribbling down answers to the test questions.

While some of the questions actually made Naru have to think, the majority were history-based, and hence relatively easy to answer. It was pathetic, really, how far the academy curriculum had fallen during this time of tranquility; from her time spent talking to Itachi on the previous afternoon she'd learned that the written portion of the exam used to be nonexistent, and was only recently added so civilian students would have a better chance of passing the final exam. Still, she wasn't about to complain, as free points were free points. She did remember to double-check her answers, though, just in case she missed something on the first pass through.

After a full hour had gone by, Iruka, who had come into the room partway through the test, called for everyone who had not yet finished to put their pencils down. While the students' main instructor went about collecting the test papers, Mizuki had everyone follow him outside. Once all of the examinees had trickled out of the Academy and into the fenced-off area behind said building, the assistant instructor began explaining the rules behind the second portion of the genin exams.

"This part of your exam, as you may have already guessed, is on Taijutsu. There are two sub-parts to this portion; taijutsu spars and kunai/shuriken throwing. For the former, your objective is to land four hits upon either me or Iruka, whichever one of us you may face, within a five minute time limit. Each hit is worth fifty points, so you can still get partial credit should you be unable to get all four of the necessary blows on one of your instructors. The only other additional stipulation is if you are forced out of the fighting ring..." here he waved a hand at the circle painted on the ground, which was approximately five meters in diameter, "...you will be disqualified, and fail this portion of the exam. While technically there are no rules in the world of ninja about fighting within a specific area, Iruka and I are here to test your Taijutsu, not how good you are at hit and run tactics. As for the throwing tests, those should be obvious. Are there any questions?"

When the only response he received was crickets chirping, Mizuki sweatdropped, but nodded in acceptance nonetheless.

"Alright, feel free to take a seat and chat amongst yourselves while we wait for Iruka; we can't hold the matches without a referee, so you'll have to wait a bit."

Having said his part, Mizuki leaned against the wall of the Academy, trying and failing to tune out the chatter that suddenly erupted between his students. Luckily for him, though, Iruka only took another three or so minutes to arrive, having handed off the written portion of the exam to one of the other available teachers for grading purposes.

"Alright, settle down!" the scarred Chunin called out, using his _Ookii Atama no Jutsu (Big Head Justu)_ to yell at the students when his first few attempts failed.

"Now that I have your attention," he drawled, "we can begin the taijutsu part of your exam. We'll do the spars first, in alphabetical order, with Mizuki and I switching off every three or so students. Afterwards we can work on getting your kunai and shuriken throwing tests complete. So, with that being said, will Aburame Shino please step into the ring?"

As the stoic bug user moved into position, Naru closed her eyes, leaning back into the tree she was resting against. While she _could _watch how the various matches turned out, she felt that calming herself via meditation was a better idea. After all, it wouldn't do to get a case of jittery nerves before she even stepped into the ring.

When her name was called a while later Naru stood up, rolling her shoulders as she walked so as to work out the kinks in her muscles. Once inside the ring she bounced a few times on the balls of her feet, before shifting into her own personalized Jyuuken stance.

Now, it was a little known fact, but the Gentle Fist style was originally designed for Hyuuga clan members with an earth affinity. Unfortunately for her, she had inherited her blood father's high wind affinity, which basically meant she had to modify the Jyuuken style of taijutsu from the ground up. Despite her initial apprehension over having to create her own style of taijutsu, she had eventually embraced the idea, taking the preexisting katas and reshaping them to better fit her affinity. Luckily for her, Hiashi and the clan elders had given her their blessings when she asked for access to the clan archives, knowing full well that if she had any children they could wind up with the same problem she was having. The end result of her research and work? A faster, more fluid and extremely offensive set of katas that combined the closing of Tenketsu with the cutting and drilling capabilities of wind chakra. But while the style itself was complete, Naru had nowhere near mastered it, as she hadn't quite reached the necessary level of speed to make all of the attacks effective. Still, she was confident that what she'd learned so far would be enough to ace the first half of taijutsu exam.

After a belated cry of 'Hajime!' from Iruka, the young Hyuuga dashed towards Mizuki, intent on getting the four required hits as fast as possible. Sidestepping a straight right Mizuki sent her way, Naru manage to land a light hit on his outstretched forearm, closing one of the assistant instructor's tenketsu in the process. However, she was forced to put some distance between herself and her opponent as he followed up his missed strike with a jumping snap-kick. Idly noting that said kick would have knocked her out of the ring and then some, she decided to return the favor, slipping into a different stance—one that Hinata recognized, as evidenced by her gasp from the sidelines.

"...You're within my field of divination. _Jūkenpō: Hakke Sanjūni Shō (Gentle Fist Arts: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms)_!" Naru called out, her cerulean Byakugan blazing. Dashing forward once more, she began her attack.

"Two Palms!" Two jabs to the forearms, closing the chakra points necessary to effectively using handseals.

"Four Palms!" Two more strikes, faster than the previous two, this time to the upper arms to restrict movement.

"Eight Palms!" Hands moving even faster, she struck Mizuki's torso in four separate locations.

"Sixteen Palms!" Eight more tenketsu jabs, four more to her instructor's torso and four to the legs.

"Thirty-two Palms!" Moving at the highest speeds yet, her hands and arms were mere blurs to the watching students as she completed the final sixteen stabs in her assault. Panting slightly from moving her arms at such high speeds, she dropped to a knee as Mizuki flew backwards a short ways, landing with a groan on his backside.

Truth to be told, she could have taken her attack a step further with an extra thirty-two palms, but, seeing as what she'd done was already going overboard when it came to the number of hits landed on Mizuki, Naru decided against it.

'Besides,' she reasoned with herself, 'A ninja's best weapon in deception. If no one knows I can do the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, then I have an ace in the hole for when I get into a tight spot. Still, I'd best work on my speed so as to reduce the strain the technique places on my body...'

It was at this moment that Iruka managed to break out of his stupor from seeing an academy student take out his fellow instructor with such ease. Granted, they were restricting themselves to the academy style of taijutsu, but still...

"Uh...seeing as Mizuki is currently incapacitated, we'll be taking a short break between now and the next match. Naru, Hinata, if you two would be so kind as to try to figure out how to reopen Mizuki's closed tenketsu, we'll be able to continue that much faster."

Naru blinked owlishly for a moment, before huddling together with Hinata to discuss how they would go about doing said task. Since Jyuuken was basically completely oriented towards closing the tenketsu in order to incapacitate the opponent, they hadn't really thought much about doing the opposite of what it was designed to do. Eventually, though, the two girls decided on trying to open Mizuki's tenketsu with a pointed stab of chakra; normally Jyuuken used a blunted burst of said energy to close the points, so, in theory, poking the closed off pathways with a tiny spear of chakra could reopen them.

However, both Hyuuga girls—along with everyone else—were surprised when their theory actually worked, although it was a rather painful process for Mizuki, as each opening of the tenketsu was like removing a dam from a river all in one go. Still, said instructor was thankful to be able to move again, even if he was a little sore, so the class got back to testing in short order.

While she waited for the rest of the class to finish up their spars with the instructors, Naru thought over what she'd just learned to do. Seeing as the forceful opening of tenketsu was a rather painful experience—if Mizuki's cries of anguish were anything to go by—perhaps there was some merit to incorporating said technique into her personal brand of Jyuuken. Considering that the Gentle Fist style of Eight Trigrams could go all the way up to one-hundred-twenty-eight palms, theoretically one could close sixty-four of the opponent's tenketsu and then reopen them in short order. If such a thing was actually possible, then it would most likely result in untold amounts of pain, potentially even causing the brain to shut down temporarily. And the thought of layering wind chakra over _that_ only served to fill her with glee. Of course, considering she couldn't do the Eight Trigrams One-Hundred-Twenty-Eight Palms the normal way with her current level of ability, she'd have to work her way up the ladder until she could. Though it was certainly feasible to try incorporating at least the opening of tenketsu in the the Thirty-Two Palms version...

Realizing with a start that the rest of the class had finished their Taijutsu spars and were now at the throwing range, Naru got to her feet and stretched, slowing making the journey towards the opposite end of the field.

When she joined the crowd of students milling around behind the throwing area Choji was just finishing up his last shuriken throw, meaning there were only two civilian students plus Hinata before it was her turn. Naru watched the two civilian students (Sakura and another who shall remain unnamed) with mostly apathy as they did their attempts, though she perked up slightly when Hinata stepped up to the plate. Scoring eight out of ten for kunai and ten out of ten for shuriken, her sister walked off with a grin on her face and deservedly so; Hinata had just shattered Sakura's record by a mile and a half. Resolving herself to try to at least match Hinata's eighteen out of twenty, Naru took a deep breath, letting her weapons fly moments after.

If anything, the smile Naru wore as she skipped back inside was even larger than the one Hinata had—scoring ten out of ten for both kunai and shuriken, she'd matched the record set by Uchiha Itachi when he'd taken his genin exam. (A/N: If you think that a perfect twenty is unrealistic, remember that these are _stationary targets_, not moving ones. If that doesn't help much, just imagine that the humanoid targets were close enough where such a thing would be feasible.) She knew she shouldn't let such a success go to her head, as she wasn't quite at Itachi's level, but _damn_ did that feel good to see all those projectiles find their mark.

By this point she was rather eager to get the final part of her exam over with, so she headed into the room where she would be tested on the three academy jutsu. Iruka was waiting for her with a smile on his face.

"Here's your written test back; you got a 48 out of 50." He said, handing her the test she'd taken earlier.

"Okay then, for the final part of your genin exam you need to make three Bunshins using _Bunshin no Jutsu_, and perform both the _Henge_ and _Kawarimi_ within two seconds. If you manage to do that, you'll have passed your entire genin exam with flying colors."

Quickly making the three required Bunshins, the young Hyuuga-Namikaze henged her clones into random female villagers before repeating the process on herself, turning into Kakashi, complete with Icha Icha Paradise in hand. She'd seen the silver-haired man at the local bookstore buying said smut novels on one of the many trips she'd taken to the market with Hitomi. Of course, then she let out a perverse giggle (though the actual pages of the book in her hand were comprised of the test paper she'd been handed earlier) and was promptly 'beaten' by the 'angry females', only to Kawarimi with a nearby chair before fake belly laughing and then changing back into her normal self.

Iruka merely watched this scene play out before him, a large sweatdrop forming on his forehead as she went from belly laughing as Kakashi to a completely blank expression on her normal visage, all in less than a second. Shaking his head at her rather creative use of emotions and the academy three, he handed Naru her headband, congratulating her on becoming a genin of the leaf.

* * *

Wheeeeee, almost exactly a day later and I have a new chapter out. Life is good! Do be sure to leave a review please, as those serve as my main form of motivation to continue writing. As a side note, I finally enabled anonymous reviews, so you don't even have to log in to leave a comment! Anyways, remember the three R's of FanFiction (Read/Rave/Review) and you'll be golden in my eyes.

I already have part of the next chapter for this story written, but the next story to be updated on my list _should _be Requiem of the Fallen. After that, I'll probably head back to this ficlet, as I'm just bursting with ideas for it.

Here's to roasting the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	3. Trouble with Teams

A/N: Okay, so I lied about updating Requiem of the Fallen before this chappy; I can't help it, I'm on a roll. Regardless, I haven't abandoned any of my Naruto fics, so don't fret. As for this chapter specifically, while slightly slow, it covers the necessary forming of the genin teams, as well as a little backstory on Naru's relationship with a certain character.

I would also like to say a big happy thank you to **ddcj1990** and **HellCleaner** for their reviews! Thanks a lot guys (or gals, whichever you are)!

Anyways, without further ado here's the key and disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and probably never will. *Cries*

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

_Monday 11:30, Konohagakure no Sato; Hokage Tower, Minato's Office  
_

Out of fifteen total students, exactly two-thirds of Iruka's class managed to pass their genin exams. While not the most stellar set of results, they were still acceptable, as every single ninja clan heir was among those who passed. However, in addition to the clan heirs a certain pink-haired civilian, one Haruno Sakura, also somehow managed to pass. Unfortunately, this presented a problem; there were ten newly minted genin, but only three Jonin senseis available to take on students, meaning there would be one genin left over when constructing this year's teams. The question was, who would be the one left out?

After a few minutes of watching the new genin talk amongst themselves through his predecessor's crystal viewing orb, Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, sat back in his chair with a frown marring his otherwise well-chiseled face. He had a few options in this situation; on one hand he could let Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi decide which youngsters they wanted to train, holding the remaining genin back until next year's class had graduate students. Unfortunately, he didn't find that fair at all for the odd man (or woman) out. After all, hypothetically speaking it could be his and Kushina's daughter that gets placed in that position. While he could always try make time in his busy schedule to train Natsuki himself if such an event came to pass, the other students weren't as fortunate as she was. And besides, in that case taking the time to train Natsuki would be playing favorites, which, as Hokage, he couldn't afford to do.

Of course, he always had the option of doing the unprecedented by creating a cell with four genins...but that would be a rightful headache for whichever jonin got the short end of the stick. At least, it would be a headache unless he roped one of the few tokubetsu jonins he had wandering around into helping out. But doing that created another problem of an entirely different caliber—the reason the standard was a four man cell was because four was a small enough number of people that it was plausible a cell could get in and out of enemy territory undetected, but large enough that a team could get a variety of jobs done. While the latter was certainly possible with four genins and two senseis, Minato wasn't so sure of the former. It certainly wasn't as big of a deal during the tranquil times they had right now, but if push came to shove and a war broke out the Yondaime Hokage had his fears that such a large team would be more weight than worth.

With a sigh of exasperation, the blonde haired man closed his eyes, leaning back in his chair while he thought. If only there was one more available Jonin, then this messed up problem could be solved in one fell swoop; three of them would get the regular amount of genins, while the fourth would take on the remaining student as an apprentice.

'Wait a sec. Apprentice? Why does that ring a bell all of a sudden?' His brow furrowed, Minato starting thinking furiously, wracking his brain to try and dredge up the unconscious connection his mind had made. Fortunately for this story's progression, he eventually _did _ manage to figure out said connection and promptly started chuckling, breaking out into peals of full-blown laughter soon after.

It was enough to make his hidden ANBU sweatdrop and wonder if their kage had finally succumbed to the insanity known as the 'paperwork voices'.

Anyways, once he managed to pull himself under control, Minato called for both of the ANBU stationed outside his office.

"Cat, I need you to bring me Anko, right away. Tell her I've got a proposition for her that's important." he said to the left of the two, once they walked through the door. As said ninja shunshin-d out of his office, he turned to the other, Weasel.

"Weasel, while I don't need you to do anything just yet, if you could get me Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi in about, say, twenty minutes, that would be great. If they ask what for, it's for genin team placements."

Weasel merely nodded, before returning to his post outside the kage's office after a short bow.

_This_ time, when Namikaze Minato sat back in his chair it was with a smile of satisfaction.

* * *

_Monday 11:45, Konohagakure no Sato; Market District, Dango Stand_

Anko was heartily enjoying her thirteenth stick of her self-proclaimed 'food of the gods' when one Yuugao Uzuki , otherwise known as 'Cat' when she was on duty, arrived next to her in a shunshin. Seeing as she was in ANBU uniform, complete with complimentary mask of said animal, Anko referred to her by her ANBU codename.

"Hello, Cat. I take it Hokage-sama has need of me?"

"Yes, he said it was an important proposition he had for you; he also wanted you to come right away."

Pouting slightly at being denied more dango but complying nonetheless, Anko left the required cash on her table before joining her long-time friend in another shunshin back to the Hokage's office.

When they both arrived Yuugao bowed to her superior, her task completed, before returning to her post with Weasel.

"You needed me, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked, raising an eyebrow when Minato suddenly chuckled.

"Yes, in fact; it has to do with this year's graduating class from the Academy." he paused, glancing at the twenty-two year old woman in front of him, "You see, this time we have an uneven number of graduates, ten to be precise, and only three available full-fledged Jonins to take on teams."

"...So, let me guess, you want me to take on the remainder as an apprentice of sorts?" Anko asked, rather unhappily, after a moment of thought.

"Yes and no. While I _do _want you to take on an apprentice from this year's graduating class..." here Minato smiled in a way that sent a thrill of excitement down the tokubetsu jonin's spine, "...You aren't going to be left with the remainder. In short, I'm letting you have first pick of which new genin you want to train, since you are otherwise receiving the short end of the stick. That is, of course, if you decide to take on this task."

It took all Anko had to resist the urge to glomp the Hokage in a massive hug. Granted, she wasn't getting a full team, but her leader was entrusting her with the upbringing of a genin of her choice—and as a tokubetsu jonin, no less. Normally such a thing would be reserved for the full fledged jonins only, so she knew it was an honor that Minato felt she was capable of doing this job. Snapping to attention, she sent him a salute before giving her answer.

"I accept, Hokage-sama!"

"Wonderful!" Minato said, giving her his best lady-killer smile. Stealing a quick glance at the clock hanging above the doorway to his office, he started rummaging through the many piles of paperwork littered across his desk.

"You have approximately fifteen minutes until the other Jonin senseis arrive, so I'll give you until then to make your decision on who you want to teach...Aha!" Finding what he was looking for, he handed her a folder containing approximately twenty separate sheets of parchment, some of which were stapled together. "In there are the new genin's Academy files, as well as Iruka's notes concerning their skills. Refer to those if you have any questions concerning what they can do."

Anko nodded, immediately starting to scan through the files for anything that caught her fancy, starting with the paper on top. However, one by one she slowly rejected student after student, starting with most of the boys. It wasn't that they weren't capable ninjas—far from it, in fact—but those she rejected simply had one or more undesirable qualities to them. Kiba was a pervert, Shikamaru was lazy, Sasuke was slightly arrogant; the list went on and on.

After about five minutes of this, she started to grow frustrated. Why did all these youngsters seem to have the oddest quirks? It wasn't natural. At least, she didn't think so. Still, knowing that she herself was not without her own 'differences', Anko kept at it, eventually pausing on Yamanaka Ino's file.

According to Iruka's notes, the girl was what many of her own generation called a 'fangirl', having a rivalry with Haruno Sakura for the attentions of one Uchiha Sasuke. However, the tokubetsu jonin could tell that Ino had potential, provided she could break out of her fangirl tendencies of course. Setting the young Yamanaka's file off to the side for the time being, Anko returned to perusing through the remaining genin, doing the same thing she had with Ino's when she reached Hinata's file. However, just as she was about to close the folder and choose between the two she had selected, her eyes landed on something...odd.

Stuck to the backside of the final piece of parchment was what appeared to be another file, something she had missed on her initial pass through. Though what interested her even more was the sheer amount of praising notes written on the back of said stuck paper. Her curiosity piqued, Anko carefully pried the once-hidden parchment away from the sheet it was attached to, giving it a once-over when it was free.

"Holy crap..." she breathed, once she finished scanning the file. While the history and written exam scores for this particular genin were decidedly average, what Anko considered to be the exams that determined the actual worth of a ninja—Taijutsu spars, the three academy ninjutsu, and battle tactics—had essentially flawless test scores written across the board.

Glancing between the new paper and the other two she had set out, the special jonin weighed her options. Ino and Hinata had higher overall scores, but the third file was head and shoulders above them both for the more 'practical' exams in the academy. And since Anko was of the mind that practical was better, well...

'I think I've found a winner...' she thought with a smile, 'Besides, it says here that the girl is a kinesthetic learner, which could explain the average history scores.'

Her mind made up, she placed all of the papers she had taken out back into the folder, handing it to the Hokage after doing so. When he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, silently asking whether or not she'd made a decision, the purple-haired tokubetsu jonin nodded in confirmation.

"Hokage-sama, I've made my decision. I, Mitarashi Anko, would like to formally request that Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru be assigned to me as my apprentice."

* * *

_Approximately 5 minutes later..._

Namikaze Minato was not often a troubled man. His country wasn't at war, and overall life was good. But here he was, pacing in his office, all because he couldn't help but feel that somewhere along the line of his life he had strayed off the correct path, making a big mistake that ultimately resulted in his happy family beginning to crumble and break apart. The mistake in question? The fact that he had steadily pushed his eldest daughter—Naomi's child—out of the family ever since his second wife died in the Kyuubi attack sixteen years ago.

Obviously, he had not done this intentionally—he had been blinded by his grief over losing Naomi, after all—but the fact remained that he _had_ done it nonetheless. The trouble was, in doing so he had essentially lost both his daughters at the same time, albeit to different reasons; though he hadn't noticed it when it happened, Naru had finally given up trying to bond with him a few years back, while Natsuki was becoming increasingly spoiled, always getting what she wanted because there was basically no sibling competition to speak of.

Of course, it was only _just now_, when it was far too late to fix the first of the two problems, that he'd actually taken the time to think over his past actions, learning in the process just how big of a mess he'd made of things. Slumping into his chair with a sigh, Minato thought back to the conversation he'd had with Anko not five minutes ago, which had brought on this whole guilt trip...

_Flashback no Jutsu_

_"...I, Mitarashi Anko, would like to formally request that Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru be assigned to me as my apprentice."  
_

_Minato blinked a few times, surprised by her choice. In all honesty he had thought she would choose Natsuki; after all, her grades, while not the best in every area, were the highest overall of the graduates. So with that thought in mind he asked the question that was on the tip of his tongue.  
_

_"Not that I object to your choice, Anko, but why her? Why not Natsuki?"  
_

_"Ano...Permission to speak the hard truth and nothing but the truth?"  
_

_He gave the tokubetsu jonin a funny look, but granted her request nonetheless. Taking a deep breath, Anko launched into a rant that would forever change his views on what he'd recently done with his life.  
_

_"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, I've found that Natsuki has grown up to be somewhat of a spoiled brat. Sure, it might be just a phase she's going through, but ever since you announced that she was a hero for holding the Kyuubi at bay the civilians have been kissing the very ground she walks on. As such, __her ego knows very little in the way of bounds. That being said, while I haven't interacted as much with Naru, Iruka's notes mentioned that she doesn't have the same problem as her step-sister, even though her taijutsu, ninjutsu, and battle tactics scores are off the charts. Natsuki might have Naru beat in book smarts, but that's most likely because the latter is a kinesthetic learner, as mentioned in another one of Iruka's notes. Besides, if you __discount the written exams the civilian council added in recent years, Naru essentially has a flawless record for her _entire four years_____ at the academy. That's the same as Itachi was, I might add."_

_____Anko let the gravity of her words sink in a bit before continuing._

___"Iruka's notes also mention that Naru has shown the ability to be humble when necessary, something which Natsuki doesn't even know the meaning of. _Unfortunately, this is probably because the latter has gotten everything she ever wanted—including respect—without having to work for it, and that irks me to no end. So in short, _Naru's humility_, Natsuki's ego problem, and just how damn good the former is at the practical aspects of being a ninja...all three of those are reasons why I want to have said girl as my apprentice. Now if you'll excuse me, I have dango to eat."

_Her explanation finished, the tokubetsu jonin stood up and walked out of the room, leaving a rather contemplative Hokage to his thoughts.  
_

_Flashback no Jutsu Kai  
_

He'd have to thank Anko later for bringing this whole mess to his attention. While fixing the matter was almost certainly out of the question, at least for the situation between him and Naru, he could at least try to make amends with his eldest daughter. She probably didn't want anything to do with him anymore, given how he'd refused her attempts to bond with him these past sixteen years, but even if that was the case he was still going to try. As for dealing with Natsuki's ego...he had a few ideas on how to go about knocking it down to size, but any of the more drastic measures would have to be discussed with Kushina first.

It was at this point that there was a knock on the door to his office. Immediately recognizing the chakra signatures of Asuma, Kurenai and Kakashi, whom he had asked Weasel to bring to his office earlier, Minato called for them to enter.

"I'm sure you know why I called you here, correct?" He asked, getting three nods as a response once all three Jonins had filed inside. "Good, then that means I can skip the introductory mumbo jumbo and move straight to the heart of the matter. As you may or may not know, there were ten newly minted genin, meaning that if nothing was done one graduate would have to be held back a year in order to be placed on a team."

"Sensei, why do I get the feeling there's a 'but' coming up?" Kakashi asked, not looking up from his Icha Icha Paradise.

"That's because there is one, you pervert." Minato deadpanned, a tick mark forming on his forehead when said silver-haired Jonin was suddenly crouched in the corner of the office crying anime tears with a tiny cloud pouring rain over his head. Sighing lightly, the Hokage sat back in his chair, before speaking in a tired voice. "Not to rain on your pity parade, Kakashi, but the genin teams aren't to make themselves, you know..."

Knowing that it was time to quit the theatrics, Kakashi quickly moved back to where he had been previously, this time putting his book away to show he was serious. Nodding to Minato, who nodded back, he let his sensei continue from where they left off.

"Anyways, like I was saying earlier, there are ten new genin, but I've already found a solution to the odd man out problem. Long story short said solution was to have Anko take on one of the new genin as an apprentice. She's already made her decision on which graduate she wants, so if any of you wanted Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru you're out of luck."

When Kakashi looked slightly disappointed, Minato raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Of course, knowing how his student idolized him, he had already guessed that Kakashi would want to train _both_ of his daughters, but sadly with Anko's decision that was not meant to be. He reckoned that the other two weren't complaining because there were two Hyuugas in this particular graduating class, and of the two Hinata was known to have the higher overall score in the academy.

'Ironic how the one genin Anko raves about is one most of the other Jonins don't give a second glance to.' He thought wryly, 'Though I'm inclined to believe her when she says Naru could be like Itachi; she has my genes, after all. We'll just have to see how fast she climbs the ranks...'

"Well, seeing as you three don't have any complaints, here are folders containing copies of the test scores and Iruka's notes for the remaining nine genin." Handing said folders to the three Jonin, Minato continued speaking. "Once you decide which three you'd like, I'll have you step forward one at a time to present your reasoning for why the ones you selected will work well together. Keep in mind that while I have the final say in these matters, providing concrete evidence for your argument will make me more likely to side with your choice. We'll start with you, Asuma, once everyone has collected their thoughts."

After about twenty minutes spent leafing through the newly minted genins' files, said lazy Jonin stepped forward from the crowd before speaking.

"I, Sarutobi Asuma, would like to formally request the second generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, to form an interrogation squad. As evidenced by their parents' team, this has proven to be an effective combination in the past, and should continue to do so."

"Alright, are there any objections to this team placement...?" Minato asked, resting his elbows on the Hokage's desk while gazing over the familiar faces for any signs of protest. When Kakashi raised a hand he motioned for the silver-haired Jonin to speak.

"With all due respect Asuma, I feel that the tactics employed by those three would be too predictable to our enemies, especially considering they are practically carbon copies of their parents, minus gender in Ino's case." Kakashi took a breath before continuing, "As such I would like to suggest replacing Choji with Inuzuka Kiba. You would still have the interrogation focus, but with Kiba's nose and Shikamaru's sharp mind the team could also double as a pseudo-tracking unit."

Asuma thought for a moment before nodding, first in Kakashi's direction, and then in the Hokage's. When no other obvious signs of protest were made, Minato wrote down the three names on one of the many sheets of paper resting before him.

"...Very well, that matter is settled; Asuma will have Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, and Nara Shikamaru, forming Team Ten. Kakashi, since you obviously had another motive for keeping Choji off Asuma's team, you can go next."

Scratching his head sheepishly at being found out, the scarecrow jonin composed himself before stepping up to the plate.

"I, Hatake Kakashi, would like to formally request that Uchiha Sasuke, Akamichi Choji, and Uzumaki-Namikaze Natsuki be placed under my command to form an assault squad. Choji, provided he gets the right instruction on chakra control, would be the medic of the team, with his family's Full-Body Expansion technique allowing him to quickly traverse large distances and save lives. Besides, from his file it says he's a pacifist, so that role fits him perfectly." (A/N: weren't expecting that, were you?)

Taking a breath, the silver-haired Jonin continued his explanation.

"Moving on, Natsuki with her godly stamina and chakra reserves would be the close range specialist, and Sasuke would be the ninjutsu specialist on the team, providing mid- to long-range cover for Natsuki to get up close and Choji to do his job tending to any wounded. And...yeah, that's about it."

Nodding slightly in acceptance of the explanation, Minato shifted in his chair, once again asking if there were any objections to the proposed team. After glancing quickly at the Hokage, Kurenai hesitantly spoke up.

"While I don't exactly have a counterargument for Kakashi's proposed team per se, should said team be formed I feel that the genin I would be left with would not amount to anything much. I say this because, if Iruka's notes are to be believed, Sakura and Hinata hate each other, while Shino is merely apathetic and wouldn't do anything to try to make them work together. As such their teamwork would be abysmal, causing the team to fall apart before it even gets off the ground."

"...And what would you suggest doing to solve this problem, Kurenai?" The Hokage asked, inclining his head to show he acknowledged her point.

"I'd say that swapping either Sakura for Choji or Hinata for Natsuki would work, though if given the choice I would prefer for the former to happen. Sakura and Choji both have potential as medics, while Hinata and Natsuki are close-range fighters, so either way Kakashi's planned out team would remain the same."

After a few minutes of careful deliberation, Minato spoke up once more.

"Alright, I've decided. The genin teams for this year will be as follows: Team 7, led by Kakashi, will be composed of Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki-Namikaze Natsuki. Kurenai will lead Team 8, comprised of Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, and Akamichi Choji. And finally Asuma will lead Team 10, with Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino as its genin members." Writing down the other two teams on the same sheet of paper as before, the blonde haired man glanced at the clock in his office for the second time in half an hour. "You have approximately fifty minutes until you have to pick up your teams from the academy, though whether you test them on their teamwork today or tomorrow is up to you. Dismissed!"

* * *

_Monday 12:30, Konohagakure no Sato; Ninja Academy, Iruka's Classroom_

Naru was bored. Like, _completely_ bored. She was so bored she had started counting the cracks on the ceiling, but had quickly grown bored of that as well. Of course, it didn't help matters that Iruka had given them an _entire hour_ to eat lunch, stating that they would be assigned their Jonin senseis and teams at roughly one o'clock, which was in...half an hour.

Just as she was about to start meditating, however, the door leading out into the hallway opened. Seeing as this particular door swung towards her current position inside the room, it wasn't until the two people stepped past the door itself that she actually got a lock on who they were.

The first person was Iruka, whom Naru had no trouble recognizing. The second was a woman she didn't know, though Naru could tell said woman was definitely a kunoichi by the way she carried herself. When Iruka pointed in her direction, however, the young Hyuuga grew curious, even more so when the kunoichi who came in with him started walking towards her. When said female ninja came to a stop in front of her, Naru glanced upwards, letting her cerulean eyes meet the kunoichi's brown orbs.

"Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru?" the unknown female asked, her voice a soft alto.

"That's me."

"Great! I'm Mitarashi Anko..." Here the corners of Anko's mouth quickly shifted upwards into a grin that could only be described as predatory, "...And I'm your new Sensei."

* * *

A/N: Annnnnd Cut! Yes, I'm evil for stopping chapter three with a cliffie, but it was already longer than chapter two by a few hundred words, so I needed to finish it up _somehow..._

Anyways, I won't make any promises about what story I'll update next, though I will say I'm still bursting with ideas for this one. We'll just have to see what happens, won't we?

Next chapter will pick up the pace quite a bit, as it'll be time for Naru to start TRAINING! Yay!

Finally, don't forget to click the nice blue review button; I've enabled anonymous reviews, so it's easy to leave a comment! Remember that reviews tell me what I'm doing right, and, more importantly, what I'm doing wrong. Also, feel free to leave suggestions in your reviews for the boy Naru will end up with; while I will have the final say in what happens (it's my story after all :p), my decision _can _be influenced with enough reviews for a certain pairing.

That being said, here's to making a stew from the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	4. The training begins

A/N: Bleh, this was _not_ a happy chapter for me to write. Mostly because I had to keep rewriting, and rewriting what I rewrote, and so on and so forth. Even now, when I finally got it done, I'm not completely satisfied with it, but there's a saying I once heard about writing; it was something along the lines of 'you eventually have to stop messing with it and just move on', so that's what I'll do. I forget where I heard that, but it's definitely some of the most sound advice I've ever heard.

Special thanks to **Someone179**, **Ceralyn**, **ddcj1990**, and **xkayxvenx** for their reviews! Also, in response to the latter's request for Naru's pairing, I'll keep your suggestion in mind :)

Anyways, while slightly shorter than usual this chapter details the first few weeks of Naru's training under Anko (who is a sadist if I ever saw one), as well as the beginning of her relationship with a certain character (although it's probably not the character or type of relationship you're thinking of, sadly). With that being said, here's the key and disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other anime/manga that I draw inspiration from.

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

If Naru had to describe the training regime Anko had put her through these past few weeks, in a single word, it would be 'hellish'. Granted, the first day hadn't been so bad—they'd spent most of that one getting to know each other—but the following days were a pure nightmare. The purple-haired tokubetsu jōnin had gotten her up at five AM almost every morning, leaving her scarcely enough time for a hurried breakfast before promptly chasing her at breakneck speed around Training Ground 44 until her legs gave out.

That was her warm-up.

Of course, the conditioning of her body didn't stop there; she was then forced to do push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches under threats of pain until she couldn't feel her arms _or _her legs. After that she was given her first reprieve of the day, but even then Anko continued her training, hammering the finer points of a wide variety of subjects into her tired brain while her body rested._  
_

By the time her teacher finished stuffing her head full of knowledge Naru was usually ravenous, so each day they'd troop off to a different one of the shinobi-owned restaurants where Anko would buy them both lunch. The restaurant owners were always happy when they came, because Naru had to eat a _lot _of food to make up for lost calories, given just how much training Anko put the younger kunoichi through between breakfast and lunch.

After said meal they worked on a combination of chakra control exercises and sparring in a process that was no less brutal than the physical conditioning; Naru had learned the tree climbing exercise on the very day the Genin teams were assigned, so the three afternoons after that were spent fending off Anko's attacks while sticking to various surfaces until she was just above chakra exhaustion. Of course, given that by the time the fourth afternoon rolled around Naru had it mastered to the point where she could fight for an hour nonstop while sideways (or upside down), that day Anko had her start the process all over again with water walking. Eventually, though, the young Hyuuga mastered that as well, so the purple-haired kunoichi continued to up the ante.

But even though she was given another break after said exercises, Naru's typical day of torture wasn't done there; her sadist of a teacher would promptly quiz her on the lessons drilled into her skull earlier that day—as well as all of the topics from days previous—just to make sure she retained the information. Provided she got everything right, they'd move onto ninjutsu training.

Said training was perhaps the easiest part of her day, as it only taxed her ever-growing chakra reserves. Of course, they couldn't do any ninjutsu without techniques, so, after using a slip of chakra paper to determine Naru's affinity on the first afternoon they spent together, Anko had dragged her charge to the shinobi-only library. There they spent approximately two hours scouring the shelves for any wind and/or water techniques, as Naru had surprisingly inherited her mother's Suiton affinity in addition to her father's Fūton one.

While by no means did they come up empty handed on that day, there was still a lot left to be desired; the teacher and student duo had only found two wind jutsu to speak of, and their hunt for water jutsu was only a little more successful. Still, both of them knew how to make do with what they had, so it was with some satisfaction that they walked away with five scrolls on said jutsu. Every day after that, Naru spent those same two hours learning the five ninjutsu, practicing and repeating the techniques until she reached the point where she could do each one in the blink of an eye and without handseals.

Needless to say, with all the different forms of training her mentor gave her it had been a grueling first two weeks for one Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru. However, while that might have been the case she'd also reaped the rewards of such a harsh schedule; her speed, endurance, and chakra reserves had essentially doubled from their already impressive high-genin to low-chūnin levels, meaning she was now more than capable of holding her own against the upper echelons of the chūnin rank. This, of course, made Anko immensely proud of her protege, though the elder kunoichi would never admit that out loud.

Today, however, they had a different itinerary planned. Yes, her sensei still had her do a few laps around the forest of death, and yes, she had still done a few sets of the other physical and chakra control exercises, but overall it was a lighter workout. The reason for such a change was that her sensei had to give her first bi-monthly report on Naru's progress to the Hokage, and she wanted said girl to be there to hear it.

When the two kunoichi arrived at Minato's office, though, Naru was surprised to see three people waiting in the room along with the Hokage. However, since they matched the descriptions her teacher had given of the 'Rookie 9' jonin senseis, she suspected they were there for the same reason as Anko.

"Well this is unexpected." The red eyed woman—Kurenai, if Naru recalled correctly—drawled playfully, "Did you forget to send your genin home, Anko? Because if you haven't noticed, she followed you to this meeting like a lost puppy..."

"Oh, I noticed alright." Anko replied with a smirk, for the moment ignoring the jab at her prodigious student, "In fact, I specifically asked her to tag along for the ride, because in case _you_ haven't noticed, Kurenai, I actually think about my genin's future. She's going to have to do this too, you know, once she becomes a jōnin sensei."

Kurenai was about to fire back another retort when Minato cut her off, effectively silencing her before she could do more damage.

"Kurenai, Anko, that's enough. We don't need to fight amongst ourselves." He said quietly, "But Anko is also correct; Naru will gain valuable experience on how we do things by sitting in on this meeting. It's not like we're going to be discussing any highly sensitive information here, after all. Besides, Anko already informed me that she wanted her apprentice to attend, so as far as I'm concerned it's perfectly acceptable for her to be here."

The red eyed woman visibly deflated as her argument was rolled up into a ball and tossed in the trash compactor, though she nodded nonetheless.

"Alright, with that being said we'll do this by seniority. Kakashi, you're up."

Said jonin snapped closed his Icha Icha, placing it in the pouch at his side. **(A/N: since this story isn't about the other genin, I'll just do a rudimentary explanation here of what they've been taught. Use your imagination if you want more) **He then explained that he had taught Sasuke, Natsuki, and Sakura the tree walking exercise, and how the first two shared a rivalry. They'd also learned a new ninjutsu each, after Kakashi tested their affinities with chakra paper. Other than that, they worked on physical conditioning. Stepping back, he allowed Asuma to come forward.

Said lazy jonin had taught his genin basically the same things as Kakashi had, with the exception of different jutsus due to there being different affinities in his group.

Kurenai was much the same as the first two, though she had taught Hinata a few genjutsu in place of any ninjutsu since her control was good enough.

When Anko stepped up to the plate, however, things got interesting. Kurenai and Asuma had departed, having been dismissed after they finished their respective reports, but Kakashi had remained since he wanted to hear how Minato's eldest daughter was doing.

"So...where do you want me to start, Hokage-sama?" The tokubetsu jonin asked, sharing a knowing grin with her student. It was going to be absolutely hilarious to see the reactions of Minato and Kakashi when she told them how far ahead of her peers Naru was...

"How about chakra control exercises?"

"Well, hmm. She's currently at three leaves..."

"Three leaves?" Kakashi interrupted, his lone uncovered eye as round as a dinner plate, "You mean she's already doing the leaf-sticking exercise? And with three leaves simultaneously?"

Anko gave him a smug grin.

"Yes, yes, and yes."

"But what about the tree- and water-walking exercises?"

"Well I taught her the first one on the day genin teams were assigned, it took her three more days to master it, and then another five to get water walking down, so..."

Kakashi blinked once, twice, three times, before placing his head in his hands.

"Why do I get the feeling that this is only the tip of the iceberg...?"

"Because it is, you pervert." Anko deadpanned, ignoring the silver-haired man as he went to cry anime tears in the corner of the room. "Anyways, as I was saying before I was interrupted, for chakra control exercises Naru is currently at three leaves whilst simultaneously water walking _and _fending off all of my attacks."

Minato sat back in his chair with a groan.

"So let me get this straight...you mean to say that Naru here..." He pointed to his eldest daughter, who only raised an amused eyebrow in response, "...Is basically already at the level of Chūnin?"

"Er, well..."

"Spit it out, Anko. How good is she?"

"Uh, if I had to take a guess...I'd say borderline low-jōnin."

Crickets chirping was the only response she got.

Eventually, though, the Hokage managed to reboot his brain and process this information, letting out a sigh soon after.

"...Just how hard have you been pushing her these past two weeks?" He asked, mimicking Kakashi's earlier action of placing his head in his hands. However, Anko merely shrugged in response, her expression unusually serious.

"I've only pushed her as much as she wanted to be pushed; when I asked her what she wanted to do on the first day we had together, she replied, and I quote, 'I need to get stronger. Strong enough to protect my family and friends. If that takes you driving me into the ground with training, then so be it. If it takes you giving me your most brutal regime, then I'll come out on top. All I ask is you help me get stronger...' End quote."

She paused long enough for the words to sink in.

"Needless to say, when faced with reasoning like that I couldn't say no. So I did as she asked, giving her the toughest, cruelest, and all around most brutal training regime I could think of, and true to her words she came out on top."

"I...see." Minato said finally, after a few minutes spent in silence. Turning slowly to the lone genin in the room, he finally asked the question that had been nagging at his conscience for the better part of two weeks. After all, he probably wouldn't get an opportunity like this again.

"Am I still a part of your family, Naru? Am I still your father, your tou-san? Or did I lose that privilege when I let you be raised by Hiashi..."

Now, the Yondaime Hokage was said to be capable of many things. He was the creator of two original jutsu, capable of many a feat of genius. He was the Yellow Flash, capable of using said jutsus to decimate an entire battalion of shinobi in just a few moments. He was a seal master, capable of calling upon the very death god himself. But what he wanted to be most was none of these things. What did he want, you might ask? He wanted to be a father to his eldest daughter, something which he had failed miserably at doing for the first sixteen years of her life.

So it was with visible regret on his face that he waited, watching as various emotions flitted through her beautiful cerulean eyes, knowing full well that it would most likely crush his heart if she rejected him as he previously had her.

And yet, deep down, he knew that she had every right to do so.

He was being selfish. Minato knew this. But he couldn't help it; he'd been a terrible parent, a fact he now regretted so much that it hurt. Naomi was probably rolling in her grave with disgust at how he'd acted. But that was beside the point. Yes, he had made a terrible decision. And yes, he'd done nothing to correct it for sixteen long years. He admitted it. But he wanted to make it up to his child in whatever way possible, even if said task took the rest of his life.

However, he was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed her decision.

"...I'll consider it" Naru said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. The Hokage's heart caught in his throat. Was she going to...? "But there's one thing I need to do before I can even do that."

Said girl stood up from her chair and walked across the room, delivering a powerful haymaker directly to Minato's right eye. Needless to say, Kakashi's visible eye went wide, and Anko nearly choked trying to hold back her laughter from seeing the all-powerful kage get decked by his genin daughter.

"That was for pushing me away for all those years, you bastard. And this..." Naru leaned down, placing a soft, chaste kiss over the rapidly swelling eye, "...is for coming to your senses. However, I can't say I've forgiven you just yet. Perhaps I will, given time...but there's still a chance I won't. It all depends on what you do to make up for the _sixteen years _of neglect you've given me."

"I think I can deal with that..." Minato croaked, idly wondering where she had gotten such a good punch. Kami forbid if she had inherited it from him..."But first I think I need to get some ice on my eye. We'll have to continue this meeting later."

Taking that as a dismissal, the three other occupants of the room silently walked out the door, though only Kakashi gave him a second glance. Pausing with his hand on the handle, the silver-haired man gave his leader an eye smile.

"You deserved that punch, you know."

"Yes, I did. I most certainly did..."

With a friendly wave the Jonin nodded, before leaving the Yondaime Hokage alone with his thoughts.

* * *

Another week passed, and Minato's eye had gradually healed to the point where you had to be up close and personal to see any of the remaining purple skin. Still, Naru had shared a laugh with her step-family at his expense when he took her to the Namikaze estates the evening of the progress meeting, so all in all life was good. She'd become good friends with Kushina, and had bonded somewhat with Natsuki, though she had yet to call the older woman 'Kaa-san' or the younger 'imouto'. Thankfully, though, Minato's wife and younger daughter had understood her reservations about doing such a thing before she was ready, merely welcoming her into the family with open arms. Additionally, Kushina had told her stories of the adventures she'd had with her blood mother and father, weaving many a tale as a bedtime treat.

Of course, hesitantly making memories with her new family notwithstanding, Naru hadn't forgetten to further her training; she had continued to hone her speed and endurance, though currently she was taking a break from that and working on trying to cut a leaf with wind chakra. She'd asked her blood father for any tips he had on reducing the chakra consumed by her ninjutsu techniques, and he'd told her about the three stages of Fūton mastery, those being cutting a leaf, cutting a boulder, and cutting a waterfall, all with pure wind chakra. Considering that it took him _three years _to complete all the stages, she wasn't too surprised when the first of the three exercises turned out to be the most difficult thing she'd ever attempted. But even then she kept at it, knowing full well that if she managed to completely master her two affinities a whole new world could potentially open up for her.

Hyōton, the fusion of Fūton and Suiton chakra.

Granted, the process of forming sub-elements like Ice was said to be nigh on impossible without a bloodline, but Naru had a theory on why this was so, and wanted to test said theory out. So, she'd resolved herself to mastering her affinities, even if it took her more than a few years to do so.

That being said, it was rather frustrating when there was so little progress...

"Naru! Lunch is served!" Kushina called out from the kitchen. Letting out a small sigh of defeat, the young Hyuuga stood up, releasing the leaf she'd been concentrating on for the better part of an hour. Initially she'd been rather hesitant to hang around Minato's family, but, after realizing that it would take some pressure off her adoptive parents, she eventually relented.

"I'll be there in just a sec!" She called back, starting the journey back towards the interior of the Namikaze estates.

Of course, seeing as she was intent on returning to the house to fill her stomach, Naru never noticed the infinitesimally small nick that had appeared in the leaf just before she released it to flutter away on the wind...

* * *

A/N: There you have it; the first part of Naru's training. This chapter took longer than the others because I had to spend so much time getting the wording of the first bit just right. In fact, I basically re-wrote this whole chappy about five separate times...

Now I know that some of you might complain that I didn't give a good enough description of Naru's skill set, so I'll just list her Biography, stats and such here:

_Name: Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru_

_Eye color: Blue [Cerulean Byakugan]_

_Hair Color: Blonde_

_Affinities: Fūton and Suiton_

_Known Ninjutsu: Fūton: Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough), Fūton: Fūjin no Jutsu (Dust Cloud Technique), Suiton: Mizurappa (Raging Waves),  
Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Technique), Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Encampment Wall)_

_Speed: Mid-Jōnin_

_Endurance: High-Chūnin_

_Strength: High-Chūnin_

_Chakra Control: High-Jōnin_

_Chakra Reserves: High-Chūnin_

_Overall: Borderline Low-Jōnin_

So yeah, those are her approximate stats at this point in the story. Each one of the stats is actually a little higher than what is listed above, due to a week passing after the meeting, but they haven't risen enough to jump up a sublevel (example: High-Chūnin to low Jōnin).

Anyways, now that that's out of the way, you know the deal, leave a comment via that nice blue review button. You know you want to!

Next chappy will have the completion (for now) of Naru's training, as well as the probable beginning of the Wave Arc. I'm not 100% certain the latter will happen at all (or if I'll be able to fit it in), but we'll just have to see, won't we?

Here's to making mince meat of the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	5. Differences with Wave

I want to say that I haven't forgotten my other Naruto stories, but I just have so many ideas for this one that it's driving me insane! Oh well, I guess I'll take things one step at a time. With that being said, like I mentioned in the after-story notes last chapter, this chappy will conclude Naru's training and start the beginning of the Wave Arc (yes I'm adding it in, I've decided that it would be beneficial to this story's progression). However, said Arc will most likely be completely different from canon, so be prepared for a _lot _of changes, considering where all the characters are at strength-wise in this fic and so forth.

Like always, I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to review my humble story, specifically **ddcj1990**, **xkayxvenx**,** Ceralyn**, **raziel44**, **someone179**, and **windfox90**. It really means a lot to me to keep getting comments, so please, keep reviewing! Also, in response to some of the comments I received:

**someone179**: Your pairing suggestion is duly noted. I'm actually rather partial to both femNaru x Itachi and femNaru x Kakashi myself, so we'll just have to see who she winds up with. And yeah, it always irks me if people skip over training, unless they go back over it in flashbacks later on or something.

**xkayxvenx**: thanks for the detailed review! I tried to make Naru's progress realistic and not too op, so I'm glad you could see that. As for Hebi style...I'll consider letting Naru learn it, but remember that she already has her heavily modified version of the Hyuuga's gentle fist style for taijutsu. As for the extent of what 'heavily modified' means, though, you'll just have to wait and see.

**ddcj1990** and **winfox90**: I'm happy you both like the idea of Naru learning Hyoton, and as for the latter's note about Hyoton + rasengan...all I can say is AWESOME IDEA. I totally hadn't thought of that, though if/when I incorporate it into this story it'll probably be a little bit later down the road. It's comments like these that really make my day, so keep on reading and reviewing you two!

**raziel44**: (From our discussion via PM) Yes, I can't please everyone, but I can still try. While I probably will have the two of them reconcile _for the moment,_ that's not to say I can't have another scene later on where it all falls apart.

Enough of me yakking away, you all probably want to get started reading, so here's the key and disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor do I own any of the other anime/manga/games/whatever I draw inspiration from.

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

_Story Start:  
_

Another week had passed, and, like always, Naru continued to push herself beyond her own limits. She had managed to hone her speed and endurance even more, though like Anko she absolutely refused to wear weights. After all, in an actual battle it wasn't like her opponent was going to give her the time of day to release or remove said training objects.

Anyways, while she _did _focus mainly on upping her speed and endurance, that wasn't to say that the young Hyuuga had neglected her training in the other ninja aspects; while not progressing as quickly as she would have liked, Naru was still making headway in her attempts to cut a leaf with wind chakra, having managed to increase the incisions to a quarter of the way through said piece of greenery each time she attempted the exercise. Of course, given that four days ago Minato had finally deemed her reserves large enough to learn the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_(without endangering her safety, obviously), it was no small wonder that she had been making leaps and bounds in terms of progress.

Since with her new technique she could now be in two places at once, Naru had taken to making room in her daily schedule for spending time with _both_ of her families, sending a shadow clone to the one she didn't visit on a particular day. However, doing that was not without its downsides; since Natsuki had taken a liking to jumping her with surprise hugs, more than once she'd suddenly received the memories from her clone as it was dispelled by said glomp from her younger step-sister. Yes, Naru found her to be somewhat of an annoyance because of this, but it was because she'd grown slightly closer to the other members of Minato's immediate family that such a thing happened, so the young Hyuuga tried not to complain.

Be that as it may, though, she still hadn't found it within her to completely forgive her blood father for his neglect. Granted, she'd _almost_ reached that level of forgiveness with him, but there was still something...missing, something that he had yet to give her. But for the life of her she couldn't figure out what that something was. (A/N: I will give a cyber cookie to anyone who can figure out what this 'something' is before Naru realizes it. Here's a hint: It's something that can break her relationship with Minato, should he choose not to give it. :] )

Shrugging silently to herself as she was once again stumped by this, Naru returned to expanding her reserves via increasingly complicated chakra control exercises. Currently she and her lone shadow clone were both rotating leaves above the tips of their fingers while sitting on top of a gurgling stream. Unfortunately, while she had indeed perfected the _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_ like the rest of her arsenal, unlike Natsuki she was still restricted to the creation of a single clone, hence the reason she was now working on increasing her chakra stores.

"I don't suppose you want to talk about anything while we do this?" She asked her clone, who merely shook its head.

"Nah, since I'm you I find this kinda peaceful. Besides, talking about stuff might mess up our concentration."

True to its words, two out of the ten leaves spinning above the tips of the clone's fingers slowly fell down, coming to a rest on top of the slowly flowing water. Sending a pout to the original, who snorted, the Kage Bunshin dispelled itself, returning what remained of its chakra back to Naru along with the usual memories. Of course, given that assimilating said memories caused a few of her own leaves to drop as well, the original let her hands fall to her sides with a sigh. Standing up shortly afterwards, she brushed off her clothes, before using a few shunshins to get herself back to the village.

After taking note of the sun's position, Naru took to the rooftops, heading off towards the market district. Since it was about one in the afternoon, it was about the time her sensei would be finishing up lunch at the dango stand, provided she hadn't been called away to do her job at the torture and interrogation department. Fortunately, she did indeed find Anko at her usual eatery, just as the purple-haired woman was about to pay for her meal.

"And what can I do for you, Naru, on this fine afternoon?" Anko said, turning to face her apprentice as the blonde-haired girl landed next to her.

"Nothing important; I just wanted to have a friendly chat. You know, the usual stuff."

Merely raising an eyebrow, the older woman paid the bill for her lunch, motioning for Naru to walk with her.

"So...anything in particular you want to talk about?"

"Well, there's the fact that Tou-san's been watching me like a hawk..." Here Naru made a face of distaste, "I know he means well, but it's starting to grate on my nerves."

"Which 'Tou-san' are we talking about here? Hiashi or Minato?" Anko asked, curious.

"Minato. I know he's been watching me with that viewing orb of his, since every time he does it I get this prickling sensation on the back of my neck."

"Hmm...maybe he's just checking up on you from time to time. You know how he cares about you."

Naru shook her head, her face set in a scowl.

"I'd think that would be the case if he did it only once or twice a day, but as it is I've already had the feeling that I'm being watched seven times just this morning. And no, I don't think this is someone else spying on me, since I've been deep in Training Ground 44 for the past seven hours."

This time it was Anko's turn to frown.

"That is rather...odd. Have you tried confronting him about this matter?"

"No, I haven't, though I suppose I should. I just don't want to come off as snarky should I have to tell him off..."

"Why would you come off as snarky? If he's bugging you with his spying, tell him to stop. It's not _that _difficult."

"You're right, I guess..." Naru said with a sigh, "I suppose I'm just hesitant because I don't want to damage our already fragile relationship."

The two women might have continued their conversation further, but it was at this point that an ANBU member landed in front of them.

"Mitarashi Anko and Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru, Hokage-sama calls for your presences at the council chambers in five minutes; he says it's urgent."

His message delivered, the nondescript ANBU member disappeared in a swirl of leaves, obviously returning to whatever post he maintained. Glancing slightly at each other in confusion, the two kunoichi nodded towards one another, silently deciding to put whatever conversation(s) they had on the backburner.  
Taking to the rooftops, Naru spoke up, asking the question that was on both of their minds.

"I wonder what Tou-san needs us for...?"

Anko merely let her face settle into a grim expression.

"Whatever it is, it's most likely nothing good. Usually when this sort of thing happens it either means something big has just gone down in the world at large, or we're going to war. Considering they're calling you, a genin, in front of the council, my guess is it's the former and we're about to go on a high-ranking mission. But we won't know whether that's actually the case until we get there; we'd best make haste."

* * *

_Approximately 10 minutes later, Council Chambers..._

Having arrived at their destination slightly ahead of schedule, it was with some annoyance that the two kunoichi were told to wait outiside the chambers until they were asked to step inside. Surprisingly, though, there were two other people waiting with them in the lobby; Itachi, and Anko's friend Yuugao, though both were without their respective ANBU masks.

"You two got called too, huh?" Anko asked, sitting by her friend in one of the many chairs. Yuugao merely nodded, her eyes closed as she meditated.

Naru, meanwhile, chose to sit opposite her sensei, winding up next to Itachi, who gave her a small smile. Much to said Uchiha's amusement, the blonde-haired girl slumped backwards in her chair after returning his smile, resting her head against the wall as she closed her eyes.

"Tough day?" He asked, the corners of his eyes crinkling as his smile grew slightly.

"Yeah...I got up a five this morning, so I'm a little drained at the moment..."

"Wow, I can see why."

"Mhm...so tired..."

Anko snorted in amusement.

"I told you not to push yourself too hard, lest you eventually burn yourself out, but you just _had _to ignore my advice..."

Her gaze softened, though, when she saw that Naru had essentially passed out from exhaustion, and was unknowingly resting her head on Itachi's shoulder. He, meanwhile, merely watched the girl beside him as she took slow, rhythmic breaths, finding such an action to be rather endearing.

"Silly girl, always pushing herself too hard. Though I suppose I had a hand in that, considering I was the one to come up with her crazy schedule in the first place..."

Itachi just nodded, letting his own head rest against the wall like Naru's had earlier.

* * *

_Meanwhile, inside the Council Chambers..._

"ENOUGH!" The Hokage roared, leaking killing intent like a sieve. He was growing _very _tired of the councilors yelling at each other at the top of their lungs. Once all of them shut up in fear of their angry kage, though, Minato cut off his KI, speaking in a more normal tone soon after.

"Tazuna, if you would be so kind as to explain your country's situation once more now that everyone is here, we can discuss the logistics behind your request and get you a team so you can be on your way that much sooner."

The old man—who was sitting off to the side—nodded, getting up and stepping to the center of the room so he could speak.

"As you may or may not know, I hail from the small island country of Wave, which is almost due south from Fire Country. Now, recently a man by the name of Gatou—yes, _the _Gatou of the Gatou Shipping Company—has set up shop in my country. Normally this would not be a problem, but Gatou has bought up basically all of the companies that regulate trade in and out of Wave, effectively halting all imports into the country. He's almost completely taken over our country, ruling it as a tyrant with an iron fist. As such Wave's people have become desperate; so desperate that we've started to build a bridge that would connect us to the mainland."

Here Tazuna paused, taking a swig of sake from the gourd at his hip.

"Unfortunately, Gatou sees the bridge as a threat to his rule, and rightfully so. If completed, the people of wave would no longer have to rely on shipping companies to import goods or food, so Gatou has been hiring assassins, namely missing ninja, to take out the head of the bridge project, me. So far I've managed to escape death, but I fear for my safety, which is why I've come to Konoha to plead, beg, you name it, for help."

The old man reached into the pouch at his hip, pulling out a small container filled with money.

"The most my countrymen and I could scrape together is enough for one of your C-Rank missons, though I understand that is not enough to cover what I am requesting in terms of assistance. However, I'll be brutally honest with you fine folks; if nothing is done and the bridge project fails, Wave will go under. We're already pretty much bankrupt as it is. Be that as it may be, though, should you either take out Gatou and his hired hands, or protect me from harm until the bridge is completed, the people of Wave are willing to pay double, even triple the amount of a standard A-Rank. Heck, you can take practically all of the tyrant's treasury for all we care. All we ask is that one of those two conditions be met, and enough funds get returned to Wave to allow us to get back on our feet."

His speech completed, the old man stepped back to where he was previously, taking another swig of sake as he did so.

Minato, meanwhile, was deep in thought. On one hand, it was a politically sound maneuver to help out Wave, as it would mean the country would be in debt to Konoha. On the other hand, though, the Yondaime Hokage didn't want the soldiers under his command to go on a suicide mission; if this Gatou character had enlisted the help of a whole battalion of missing ninjas—which certainly seemed possible, if costly—he wouldn't want to send anything less than a complete team of ANBU. If the man only hired one or two missing ninja like he suspected, though, he could get away with his initial plan.

That being, send Anko, Yuugao, Itachi, and Naru to Wave as a test-pilot mission to see whether his eldest daughter should be brought into the ANBU ranks, bypassing the need for her to wait until she could be put on a full team to take the Chunin Exams entirely. He had always found it slightly hypocritical that said exams required you to be on a three man team in the beginning, then split you up individually once you were a little over halfway through. Still, while rules were rules, there was no rule that stated you had to be a certain rank in order to join ANBU, only that you had to be good enough.

And Naru was certainly at that level.

So, his mind made up on what he would do should the council decide to help out Wave, the Hokage put the matter to a vote. Needless to say, the decision was unanimous, albeit for differing reasons.

"Yamato, seeing as no one objected, would you be so kind as to retrieve the four ninja I had wait outside these chambers? I think it's time I inform them that they have a mission."

Said ANBU member nodded, slipping out of the council chambers momentarily. When he returned, the requested shinobi filed in after him, standing at a position of relaxed attention once they were all inside. His gaze lingering slightly on his eldest daughter before returning to the other three, Minato spoke up.

"As you four have probably already figured out, we've just been tasked with an important mission, where failure would have dire consequences. Perhaps not for Konoha, but for another nation that could be a potential ally. As such, while I will also be sending a Genin team to act as bodyguards for Tazuna here, there is another mission that needs doing, one that I feel the four of you can pull off."

Here the kage paused, letting them understand the gravity of the situation.

"Your task is to assassinate Gatou of Gatou Shipping Company, who currently has a choke hold on Wave Country's economy."

* * *

A/N: Dun. dun. Dunnnnn. Of course, given that I had Tazuna there, it was probably pretty obvious what they were going to be assigned to do. Still, a minor cliffie to keep you entertained till next chapter, as you don't yet know what the characters' reactions will be. Also, hooray for the tiny moment of fluff between Itachi and Naru! While I won't say that's the pairing this story will end up with, it's one of the two I'm currently favoring, the other being pairing her with Kakashi. Who knows, I may end up having them competing with each other for her affections...although that's yet another maybe. Even _I _don't know who she will end up with at this point, so we'll just have to see (and I'll have to keep writing, obviously).

With that little monologue being said, please review! reviews help fuel my drive to continue writing this story, so the more I get the more motivation I have. Also, don't forget to criticize me on parts you think could be done better; while I'm quite pleased with just getting reviews, telling me what I can work on would be a big plus in making my writing become much better.

Also, here's Naru's current stats as of this chapter:

_Name: Hyuuga-Namikaze Naru_

_Eye color: Blue [Cerulean Byakugan]_

_Hair Color: Blonde_

_Affinities: Fūton and Suiton_

_Known Ninjutsu: Fūton: Daitoppa (Great Breakthrough), Fūton: Fūjin no Jutsu (Dust Cloud Technique), Suiton: Mizurappa (Raging Waves),  
Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu (Water Clone Technique), Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Encampment Wall)_, _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone)_

_Speed: Low-ANBU  
_

_Endurance: Low-__Jōnin_

_Strength: Low-__Jōnin _

_Chakra Control: Mid-ANBU  
_

_Chakra Reserves: Mid-____Jōnin_

_Overall: Mid-Jōnin_

She's still got room for growth, but from here on out the changes/increases in her skills (besides known ninjutsu, obviously) will happen in smaller and smaller increments. In case you're wondering, my ranking system goes genin-chunin-jonin-ANBU-kage, with each having a subdivision of low-mid-high. The final jumps (between ANBU and kage, as well as every subcategory jump thereafter) are the largest out of all the jumps, with genin and its subcategories being the smallest.

**IMPORTANT NOTE:** While her stats might seem a bit high, to put things in perspective if she were to face Zabuza she would still lose, hands down. The reason for this is two fold; 1. Jyuuken does not match up well against someone with a huge meat cleaver, especially someone who can wield said weapon with one hand. And 2. Naru still lacks experience.

Now, obviously she will gain some of the latter as time goes on, but she won't be soloing people of Zabuza's caliber like it's nobodies business. At least, not yet anyways.

Here's to using a trash compactor on the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	6. A Wave away

A/N: Whew, another chapter done. I had fun writing this one, because it shows the after-effects of the small cuddle scene with Naru and Itachi. It also continues the Wave Arc, with the many, MANY changes from canon. In case anyone is wondering, the genin team that will be guarding Tazuna is indeed Kakashi's squad, though their part in this arc will come a bit later.

Time for some review replies! I really like the fact that I'm getting approximately four reviews per chapter (which is my unofficial goal for the moment), so I'll do my best to respond to any and all questions my readers might have. With that being said, I'd like to thank **ddcj1990**, **Le Diosa**, **NUPhoenix21**, **xkayxvenx**, and **someone179** for their comments on Chapter 5 :)

**someone179**: I try, I really do. ;)

**Le Diosa**: I'm glad I could get that reaction out of you, because it was a real 'awwww' moment for me to write.

**ddcj1990**: Thanks for the idea on how Naru should learn Hyoton; I can't say if I'll use it just yet, but I'm glad for the suggestions :)

**NUPhoenix21**: glad you like my story! I can't say that it's the *most* original plotline out there, but it's certainly not overused.

**xkayxvenx**: Sadly, you won't find out who was spying on Naru/what their intent was until after the Wave Arc (or at least sometime in the middle of it, like in the next 1-2 chapters). As for the Itachi/Naru comment, she isn't that informal with him (I suppose you could say 'yet' at the end of that sentence), but, as you'll see somewhat with this chapter...well you'll just have to read to find out, won't you :)

Anyways, without further ado here's the key and disclaimer:

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, and probably never will. *Cries*

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

* * *

Naru stared into the remains of the fire, absentmindedly poking at the embers with a stick she'd found. Their group of four had been traveling for just under two days now, heading to Wave Country to assassinate Gatou. Of course, given how...awkward...things had been between her and Itachi ever since she had passed out on his shoulder and subsequently woken up, it was no wonder she couldn't sleep. Granted, almost all of said awkwardness was on her part, but that didn't change the fact that her face seemed to heat up slightly whenever she made eye contact with him. Whether from embarrassment or something else, Naru wasn't certain, but she _did_ know that his presence had started to agitate her recently.

And that only served to frustrate her more.

It was strange, really. She'd never been one to chase after boys, back when she and all her peers were just starting the Academy. So why? Why was she starting to feel...flustered—yes, that was the word—around Itachi? Sure, she could understand her initial embarrassment from being caught in that position, but that was over two days ago! Two. Freaking. Days! So why couldn't she just let the matter go?

With a sigh of defeat, she tossed her stick into the pile of still-glowing cinders, deciding to at least _try _to get some sleep. It wouldn't do to be groggy from lack of rest in the morning, especially considering they would be arriving at their destination tomorrow. Having that thought in the forefront of her mind, she lay down on her bedroll, staring up at the stars once she was comfortable.

All three of her traveling companions—as well as herself—had foregone the use of tents for the time being, given that it was both still rather warm, and not raining. Obviously they had packed said traveling implements in the case the latter ever happened, but there was a certain serenity in sleeping under the stars that you just couldn't get with a cloth over your head.

That being said, the next morning came far too quickly for Naru's liking. She'd eventually fallen asleep partway through the night, but her body was still crying out from lack of rest. However, seeing as she was both the first one up _and_ awake enough that there was little to no hope of falling back into slumber, she eventually decided to make the most of her situation.

Twenty minutes and a rather cold bath in the nearby stream later, we find her wringing out her hair after getting dressed. Given that she probably wouldn't see another bath or shower for at least a few more days, Naru was pleased to be at least somewhat clean, even if she missed smelling like her usual soap and shampoo. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers, especially out in the wilderness like they were.

Grabbing some ration bars to munch on after returning to camp, she set about compacting up her stuff and sealing it away, the rather loud 'poof' from doing so waking up her companions. After pocketing the scroll of her belongings and pointing a still-groggy pair of kunoichi in the direction of the stream, Naru set about doing a few stretches to warm up her muscles. After all, it wouldn't do to get a cramp while they traveled.

Having closed her eyes shortly after starting her stretches, though, it was with a small amount of surprise that she found Itachi doing a similar workout when she opened them. For a few moments she watched him, admiring how fluidly he moved, though she quickly glanced away when he raised his head to meet her gaze. In doing so, however, she missed the slight frown that creased his facial features as he wondered why she was avoiding him.

It was no secret to the two elder two kunoichi of their group that Itachi was somewhat attracted to the young Hyuuga; indeed, he'd even confided as much in Anko before they'd left, seeing whether or not Naru's 'elder sister figure' would approve of him pursuing a relationship with said young woman. Of course, the Uchiha had been surprised when the tokubetsu jonin gave him the green light almost immediately, and had subsequently asked why.

_Flashback no Jutsu_

_Anko gave him a rather penetrating glance, as if searching his soul for something. Itachi merely returned her gaze with an even stare, idly wondering what she was looking for. When the purple haired woman finally spoke, however, her reasoning threw him for the loop.  
_

_"...I guess it all boils down to the fact that Naru needs more male figures in her life. Think about it for a sec...her own father cast her out of the family when she was just a babe, and while he _has _been trying to make up with her__, Hiashi has basically stolen his role as her 'father'. Unfortunately, the Hyuuga clan head is basically the only non-female role model she has; with no teammates to speak of, she's slowly drifting away from the rest of her peers, a fact that is only magnified by the growing gap in their respective skill levels. And with me as her sensei...I think you get the point."_

_Here she gave Itachi a tired smile.  
_

_"I worry about her, I really do. She pushes herself far too hard when training, because that's basically all she has; her social life has become almost nonexistent. Aside from me and her adoptive families, she essentially doesn't have anyone else. So it's an immense relief to me that you've taken an interest in her, though I would_ _suggest starting off as her friend and working your way up from there. __Can't be too cautious, after all. Though with that being said, I need to get packing. Ja ne!"  
_

_With the small smile still on her face, Anko stepped back, shunshin-ing off to her apartment moments later.  
_

_Flashback no Jutsu Kai  
_

Needless to say, that had been a rather interesting, if one-sided, conversation. Itachi had done some soul-searching since then, looking to see whether the motives behind his initial attraction to Naru were enough to consider pursuing a relationship. He'd managed to come up with a few reasons, though whether or not they were enough was in the eye of the beholder.

First, she had been somewhat of a mystery to him, though he was constantly learning more and more about her as time went on.

Second, she had a level head on her shoulders. By no means was the girl rash when she made decisions, which was a big plus in his book, as it meant she was less likely to get killed in their line of work.

Finally, Naru was a kind person, if a bit introverted. The few times they had played each other in shogi he'd noticed that she never bragged when she won, or even complained when she lost. This was perhaps the most important of the three, as he wouldn't want to spend part or even all of his life with someone whose actions grated on his nerves.

Those three reasons aside, he also found her quite—dare he say it—pretty, even beautiful. Seriously, he didn't understand why she had absolutely _no one_ chasing after her for her looks. It just didn't make sense.

'All the better for me, I suppose. Though I just wish I knew why she keeps avoiding me when I try to meet her eyes or talk to her...' He sighed, standing up just as Anko and Yuugao came back into their makeshift campsite. As much as he would have liked to continue ruminating over his love life (or lack thereof), _he_ had been the one placed in charge of this mission by the Hokage. So, after signalling for the others to fall in step behind him, Itachi took to the trees, shoving the restless thoughts back into the recesses of his mind with practiced ease. He could think on such matters later, _after _they had completed their job.

* * *

Three hours later and we find the group of four Konoha shinobi water-walking across the channel that divided Wave from the mainland. A heavy mist was in the air, blanketing both shorelines and everything in between with its ethereal qualities. With that being said, though, all of their small squad were hard pressed to see where the others were, much less the water directly in front of them. Still, they managed to make it all the way across eventually, ending up at one of the many small ports left unattended on the other side.

"What now, taicho?" Yuugao asked, keeping her voice barely above a whisper.

"Now we head into town. If the intel I got from Tazuna is correct, today is the day that Gatou's thugs do their weekly extortion of Wave's citizens. We'll need to follow some of them back to their base, so keep your eyes peeled." Itachi got three nods in return, signaling everyone to spread out moments later. Keeping to the shadows, the four shinobi ghosted over the land, making as little noise as was humanly possible.

It took them a few minutes, but eventually they reached the outskirts of Wave's main town. However, if the state said outskirts was any indication of what the rest of the town was going to be like, then the ninja were in for a rough stay; most of the buildings were dilapidated, and there were homeless people sleeping on the streets.

While no stranger to poverty—she knew Konoha had its own Red Light district, after all—Naru was still appalled at the level of uncleanliness these people presented. From what she could see, most of the homeless were covered in rags held together by the thinnest of threads, something that made her slightly uneasy. It wasn't that she felt pity for them, but to be forced to live like that was...despicable, to put it mildly. Still, the sight of so many people living on the streets was enough to remind her that _her_ life could have been similar, had the Hyuuga clan not welcomed her with open arms.

Mentally shaking herself for getting lost in thought, Naru focused back on the task at hand. She was here for a job, and would do her damnedest to complete said job, because it would make these people's lives that much better. Only moments after she steeled herself, however, she heard the sounds of a scuffle break out at what appeared to be the market district. After signalling her comrades, who nodded, she took off, heading in the direction of the noise. When Naru arrived at the scene, though, the sight that met her eyes was enough to make her blood boil.

Standing over the prone form of a middle-aged man were a group of four thugs, and they were taking turns beating the poor soul across the back with the flats of their blades. And the worst part? They were laughing while they did so. It took every fiber of her being—as well as a hand on her shoulder, courtesy of Anko—to not jump out and slay the brutes where they stood. Her mind screamed at her, berating her for not saving the guy, but she locked that part of herself away. Detaching herself from her emotions, she let logic take over. It still hurt, but the life of one man was not enough to compromise the mission.

When the thugs finished up their beating, having lost interest in the now-dead target, the four shinobi trailed behind them as they continued on their way. Naru sent a prayer to whatever god or kami that would listen, begging for forgiveness for not saving that man from a painful death. Oddly enough, however, a small wisp of wind seemed to caress her face as the breeze picked up, though whether it was only her imagination or not she couldn't tell. Still, she took it as a sign that her prayers had been answered, resolving herself to end Gatou's reign over this poor country as quickly as possible.

Luckily enough, the four Konoha shinobi didn't have to witness any more beatings, as the three other places Gatou's henchmen stopped at were able to fulfill the weekly quota. Once they finished collecting, the thugs took off into the woods on the outskirts of town, taking only a quick glance behind them to see if they were being followed. Of course, said glance wasn't enough to detect their pursuers from their hiding places in the shadows, so they were unaware that they were bringing some of the very people Gatou _didn't_ want to have visit directly to his personal keep.

As they stalked the thugs from a safe distance, Anko, Yuugao, Itachi and Naru all wondered what sort of place Gatou actually lived at. According to the intel given to them by Tazuna, none of the people of Wave had actually seen the man's base of operations, though it was said that some had tried to find it and failed. Still, from what they could glean off said information the man liked to have his material wealth close at hand, so the thugs they were currently shadowing _should _be leading them directly to his keep.

They would have been correct in that assumption.

Although the ruffians _did _take precautionary measures that would have fooled civilians, it was nothing the four ninjas couldn't track. So, approximately fifteen minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

Their target was by no means modest, if the sheer size of his home was any indication. Indeed, it was with sweatdrops on the backs of their heads that Naru and company craned their necks, seeking the top of the massive structure.

"That has got to belong to the most vain man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting..." Yuugao drawled out in a whisper. "Though with any luck he'll feel so safe in his castle that security will be lax."

The other three merely nodded, seeing the logic in her statement. Anko was the next to speak up, though she too kept her voice down.

"If I were him, Kami forbid, I'd most likely place my bedroom or whatever in the highest portion of the building. That way anyone who stormed the place would have to travel through each and every floor below that to get to me, most of which are probably swarming with guards. Cowardly, but it's the most likely scenario."

Once again, the other three nodded.

"We'll strike in about an hour. Before we do so, though, we'll meet back here..." Itachi dropped a kunai into the soft earth by his feet, "In the meantime, fan out and commence gathering intel from the outside. Don't engage anyone, and keep yourself hidden; we don't want any casualties, since we can't expect backup."

All four of them split up, each taking a wall of the keep to study. Itachi took the front, Naru the back, and Yuugao and Anko the two sides. While it was a mostly boring hour for Naru, she did manage to overhear some of the ruffians on her side the castle talking about heading to bed, as well as a few creaks from boards groaning as weight was placed upon them. That could only mean that the thug barracks, or whatever you wanted to call them, were on her side of the keep. Granted, she didn't gather much else in the way of information, but that piece of intel was pretty important, considering that they wanted to avoid an all-out fight at practically any cost. As such, when she relayed this information back to the others just before it was time to go after Gatou, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Okay, we'll avoid the back- and front-sides of the keep, then. Anko, Yuugao, anything interesting happen on your sides of things?"

"My side seems to contain the mess hall of sorts, though I could be wrong." Anko whispered, getting a nod of acceptance from Itachi. Yuugao chimed in when the lone male of the team looked her way.

"And mine has the treasury, if what the other sides contain is any indication. That, and the telltale clink of coins kinda gave it away."

Nodding once more to himself, Itachi then outlined the plan he'd devised, adjusting it slightly in accordance with the new information.

"Alright, here's the plan. We're going to climb up the side with the treasury, heading towards the central tower where Gatou is ASAP. That being said, we'll most likely have to fight our way there, so Yuugao you'll head in first. Since you've got a katana, you'll be the brunt of our offense, with me covering your back. Anko and Naru, your job is to dispatch the thugs on the lower levels as quickly and silently as you can. I don't care how you do it, but we _need _to kill every single bandit in this fortress so the thugs don't take it out on the nearby town. Let's move!"

Silently skirting around the outside of the keep, the four Konoha shinobi started the ascent up the treasury wall, unaware that even the best laid plans can go awry...

* * *

A/N: OHOHOHOHOHO! Yes, I'm evil. But where's the fun without the occasional cliffhanger? That aside, next time we'll see what actually happens in the storm of Gatou's keep.

That being said, here's to curbstomping the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


	7. Making Waves

A/N: Wheee new record for getting out a chapter! I completed this one in a little under 8 hours, which is a pretty good deal, at least for you readers. Just as a heads up, though, don't expect such a thing to happen often, because my little brother is coming home in two days (and he alone makes the house noisy. Noisy house = bad writing environment = less time spent writing / less frequent chapters). With that being said, here's some replies for my faithful reviewers:

**Le Diosa**: I'm glad you can find so many good things about my story (seriously, I probably couldn't think up half of those myself...). I think you'll enjoy this chapter immensely, given what other ones you've liked ;)

**Ceralyn**: I'm glad you like the direction this story is heading in, though I'll tell you up front that this chapter won't cover everything you mentioned in your review. What it does cover, you'll just have to read to find out. As for the comment about the Wave arc being done to death, I totally agree with your sentiments, which is why I try to make my stories diverge from canon as soon as possible. This is fanfiction, after all, so why bother making things the same?

**someone179**: I'm glad you like it; like I mentioned in my reply to Le Diosa, if you like small amounts of fluff between Itachi/Naru, you'll most definitely like this chapter. And yes, while her byakugan hasn't been mentioned much, that's because Naru hasn't really been in any true fights. You'll find a small mention of it at the beginning of this chappy, so I hope that answers your question/comment. :)

**Just as a side note before we start, this chappy has a small amount of angst in it to help the story progress (though it DOES get resolved in this very chapter...), so if such things aren't your cup of tea don't both reading much further. :(**

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other anime/manga that I draw inspiration from.

Key:

"This be talking."

'This be thinking'

**"Bijuu/Higher Being speech"**

**'Bijuu/Higher Being thought'  
**

_Jutsus will be Italicized and Underlined**  
**_

_Flashbacks are in Italics only  
_

****This chapter is currently Un-Beta'd****

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_Wave Country; Gatou's Keep, Mess Hall  
_

Dodge left, then right, before darting in with a Jyuuken strike to the heart. Then a duck and roll, using her Byakugan's peripheral vision to seamlessly avoid a drunken sword swing that would have otherwise taken her head off of her shoulders. Pull out a kunai, and leave it in someone's eye. Throw a few shuriken laced with wind chakra during a lull, and repeat.

Such was the dance of death that Naru found herself in.

They had scaled up the keep wall approximately two hours ago, ending up on the third floor before splitting up into pairs to do their designated missions. Everything had been going smoothly...until she and Anko reached the ground floor. She'd somehow gotten separated from her partner in crime amidst the chaos, though whether that was because of the never ending tide of bandits they'd run across—or just plain dumb luck—she didn't know. What she _did _know, however, was that a single mistake could lead to her death—something she wanted to avoid at all costs. The only problem was that she was starting to get tired. Her arms were starting to feel heavy, and her movements were becoming sluggish. It would only be a matter of time before either help arrived, or she made that one fatal mistake that caused all her hard work to go down the drain.

Now granted, she'd killed off an innumerable amount of bandits already, as evidenced by the piles upon piles of bodies littering the mess hall, but for every man she took down two more seemed to take his place. And that wasn't even the worst part; she couldn't use any of her ninjutsu, not because they wouldn't be effective, but because almost any of the offensive ones would bring the four floors of stone above her crashing down on her head.

Of course, doing such a thing would be the perfect suicide technique, as none of the bandits would be able to escape being crushed, but her friends—if they managed to escape the same fate—would be unhappy that she died in such a place. Yeah, she didn't want that. Still, she kept that idea in her head, toying with it, knowing that she only had about seven to ten more minutes before the strain of fighting for so long caught up with her.

When another five minutes had passed—and help had yet to arrive—she was starting to consider pulling off such a move. Her sides were heaving, her breath coming and going in labored gasps. Her lungs felt like they were on fire, and the corners of her vision were starting to become blurry. It was now or never. She had to make the choice.

While she weighed her options, the bandits—there were only a couple dozen left alive in her vicinity—were milling about. Whereas when they started fighting they'd been confident they could overwhelm those who dared invade Gatou's stronghold, now they weren't so certain. This _girl_, while showing the telltale signs of fatigue, had just taken down several hundred of their brethren all by herself. So those remaining were somewhat hesitant to approach her, for fear of joining those on the floor in never getting up again. Even if she was tired, they'd come to understand the saying that 'If a beast can be considered dangerous, a wounded beast is even more deadly.'

If Naru could have heard their thoughts, she would have found it ironic that the people who beat an unarmed human to death considered _her _to be a 'beast' of all things. Eventually, however, she reached her decision. She wouldn't pull off a suicide move, though she _would _make sure that none of the thugs in the room with her made it out of here alive.

Even if it took her dying breath to make it so.

Steadying herself against one of the many overturned tables, she slowly slid into a stance that would have made Hiashi proud.

"...You're within the field of my divination. _Jūkenpō: Hakke Hyaku Nijūhachi Shō (Gentle Fist Arts: Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms)_!"

"Two Palms!" Two strikes to two bandits, each one directed at the heart for the kill shot.

"Four Palms!" Two more jabs, this time to another two thugs, placed in the same location as the first two.

"Eight Palms!" Another four strikes, another four bandits dead with well-placed shots to the heart.

"Sixteen Palms!" She willed herself to stay strong, darting in between her surprised opponents as she took them down.

"Thirty-two Palms!" Bandits were now falling like dominoes, so fast were the jabs directed at their hearts.

"SIXTY-FOUR PALMS!" Naru screamed out the finale of her attack, darkness claiming her even as she continued to strike down the last of her foes.

Had her vision not failed her in the end, she might have seen her friends, her comrades-in-arms come running into the mess hall at the sound of her voice...

* * *

"How's she doing?" Itachi asked, kneeling beside Yuugao as the kunoichi checked over Naru's prone form. They had moved the downed girl outside after watching her collapse, seeing as the fresh air might do her some good. That, and the bodies inside Gatou's keep would be starting to smell quite ripe about now. However, that was beside the point. Seeing as she was the only one of their group with anything resembling formal medical training—though even what _she_ had was sketchy at best—Yuugao had been the one to run a diagnostic jutsu on the body of their fallen comrade. Needless to say, the results weren't good.

"...I'll be frank with you, Itachi. There's a high possibility that she won't live to see the morrow." Yuugao said with a sigh, avoiding looking at the Uchiha's crestfallen face. "She's suffering from a combination of both chakra and physical exhaustion, which is a deadly situation to be in. Normally the body picks up the slack when you're suffering from the former, producing excess chakra as a result. That's the reason why depleting your reserves increases them once you return to full strength. And if you become physically drained, you normally have your chakra to sustain you. However, in her case...the body is just as exhausted as her chakra network."

She wiped a few tears from the corners of her eyes before continuing.

"If I were a medic of Tsunade's caliber perhaps I would be able to do something like a chakra transfusion, but as it stands there's not much we can do for her other than stay by her side and pray with all our hearts that she makes it through the night."

Her diagnosis imparted to the leader of their group, Yuugao burst into tears, clutching at her knees like a small child would as she rocked back and forth. Itachi, while not as emotional on the outside, was no less heartbroken. The girl he'd come to admire, perhaps even love, would most likely not live to see the sunrise. All because they hadn't taken into account the sheer numbers of the thugs Gatou had hired. If he wasn't kicking himself before, he certainly was now.

Of course, with that being said, he knew he wasn't the worst off, either; if _he _was feeling heartbroken, then Anko must have been feeling even worse, given just how close she'd been to Naru. Speaking of the tokubetsu jonin, though, said kunoichi was just simply staring off into space. She'd heard Yuugao's words, though it was in a rather detached sense that they penetrated her muddled mind.

You see, in a way she felt it was _her_ fault that Naru was in that comatose-like state, that she had betrayed her apprentice because they had inevitably separated when they were swarmed with the flood of bandits. As such, she saw herself as no better than Orochimaru, who had betrayed her as _his _apprentice, though that had been for an entirely different reason. But for the moment she didn't care about that latter part, even if it would have made all the difference to her thought process. All she saw, thought, whatever, was that both times she had let someone worm their way into her heart they had been wrenched brutally away from her. Her mind had essentially shut itself down to cope with the emotional pain; it had been the same when Orochimaru had betrayed her, though this time felt a thousand times worse than that, because, at least according to her shattered mind, _she _was the one who had betrayed Naru.

The group of four had completed their objective, but was the end result worth it? None of the three still in the land of consciousness seemed to think so.

* * *

_Blinking sleepily, it was with some surprise that Naru awoke to the sound of gurgling water. Strangely enough, said water noises were coming from...directly underneath her? What was going on here? Shifting her head to the side in her confusion, she found the answer to her questions.  
_

_She was in a boat. Granted, it was nothing more than a tiny dinghy, scarcely large enough to hold her prone form, but it was a boat nonetheless.  
_

_But realizing she was in a boat only gave rise to more questions._ Why_ was she in a boat? And perhaps more importantly, how did she get here? Wherever here was, of course..._

_With a start she sat up, causing the dinghy to rock slightly from the suddenness of her movement. Glancing warily around herself, she was surprised to find herself (and her mighty dinghy!) on a river. However, said river stretched off to the horizon on either side, only partially obscured by the mist that seemed to hang in the air, making her second guess her initial decision that this was indeed a river.__ It couldn't have been a lake, as the water was flowing, and an ocean seemed unlikely, given that the flow was all in one direction, so..._

_**"It is indeed a river, child. It is the river of Death, known as**** Styx by humans in ages past." **A booming voice said, seemingly coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. While normally such a thing would put her on guard, she sensed that she could trust whoever the voice belonged to. How she knew this, Naru didn't know. She just did.  
_

_"...So I'm dead then?" The girl asked, rather unhappily. After all, who_ wouldn't _be unhappy to find out that they were dead?_

_**"Yes and no, child, yes and no. While most never reach consciousness during their time in this place, due to how they died, those that do are free to leave if they so wish. My job is merely to guide those who don't to their eternal rest."**  
_

_"I don't understand. Why would someone be allowed to return to life if they were already dead?"  
_

_Here the voice rumbled a bit, as if laughing softly.  
_

_**"Aren't you an interesting one. Most would simply accept the word of a Kami and be done with it. But you...you would seek to understand the workings of the higher realms even though such an understanding would undoubtedly break your mortal mind. In answer to your question, though, you are not completely dead until you pass the waterfall."**  
_

_Cocking her head slightly to the side, Naru listened for the telltale sounds of water, well, falling. It was faint, off someways in the distance, but she still heard it. Deciding to get on with her life, so to speak, she stepped out of the small dinghy, finding the river to be surprisingly shallow. Seriously, what was the need for a boat when the water only reached up to her ankles? Her small internal rant aside, though, it was at this point that she realized that, while she knew she_ could _return to the world of the living, she didn't have the slightest inkling as to_ how _to go about doing so._

_"So, um, Kami-sama..."_

**_"Just walk in the opposite direction of Styx's flow. You'll be out of here in no time."_**

_"...Thanks."  
_

_**"No problem. Just doing my job, that's all."**  
_

_With that parting remark the presence accompanying the ethereal voice vanished, leaving her alone once more. Shrugging slightly to herself, Naru slowly made her way upstream, eventually vanishing into the mists as her soul returned to the mortal plane of existence. Once she was completely gone, however, the voice and presence returned.  
_

_**"You had something to do with her waking up, didn't you?"** It asked one of the higher gods, specifically the highest Kami herself. Of course, given that such beings' words are not meant for mortal ears, said Kami's response will not be written here.  
_

_**"Yes, yes, I understand. I'll see to it that that happens."** it said after a moment spent listening to Her reply.  
_

_The discussion seemingly over, the Watcher of Styx (or whatever you want to call him/her/it) lapsed into silence, waiting until yet another visitor came into its realm.  
_

* * *

Her close brush with death and subsequent meeting with the rather down-to-earth Kami aside, the first thing Naru felt as she re-entered the mortal plane was pain. Lots and lots of pain. So much pain, in fact, that her mind had to shut itself down just to deal with all of the electrical signals it was receiving. Still, while she could have done without the pain, her last coherent thought before passing out was that it felt _damn _good to once again draw the sweet tang of fresh air into her lungs.

Yuugao, meanwhile, couldn't believe her eyes. In fact, she had to use her hands to rub said parts of her body three separate times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Of course, when it did, in fact, become clear that Naru's chest was once again steadily rising and falling, she couldn't help but let out a whoop of joy that was completely uncharacteristic of her normally stoic personality. But then again, her patient had just been clinically dead for the past minute and a half, so such a thing could be considered normal, even for her.

It was approximately five thirty in the morning, and the sun was just peeking over the horizon as Itachi and Anko came running into the clearing, wondering what the heck was going on. All three of them had been up the entire night with worry for their fallen comrade, though only Yuugao had remained by Naru's side the entire time. The others couldn't bear to see her in such a state, with both Itachi and Anko thinking that it was their own fault she had ended up that way. Still, since Yuugao was practically babbling with excitement when they came into the clearing, said kunoichi merely pointed at her patient's steady breathing, tears of joy leaking from the corners of her eyes.

Needless to say, Itachi and Anko got the message.

"...How?" The Uchiha finally asked, daring to hope that the girl he had feelings for would make a full recovery. After all, when he'd last seen her she had seemed so weak, so frail. Back then she had barely even been breathing, and her pulse had been erratic. But now...now everything about her seemed to be filled with an inner strength, one that just hadn't been present before.

"I...I don't know. One minute she was essentially gone, and the next she was, well...back, and stronger than ever. I don't know how to explain it, other than it's basically a miracle she's still alive." Yuugao finally replied, once she managed to reign in her excitement to an acceptable level.

At this point all three of them were crying with happiness, though Itachi's eyes were leaking tears of relief as well. Relief that Naru would survive such a brutal experience, and relief that he would be able to at least tell her his feelings, even if she chose not to accept them. It was his hope, however, that she would at least consider letting him into her life, if not all at once, then at least gradually.

* * *

When Naru finally woke up, however, it was to the sight of three smiling faces. Amidst their shouts of joy at seeing her return she glanced first at Anko, then at Yuugao, before finally, for the first time in four days, letting her cerulean orbs meet Itachi's onyx ones without looking away shortly afterwards. Giving him a shy grin, she spoke up in what seemed to be the first time in weeks, though it was really less than a day.

"I missed you all...especially you, Itachi..."

Inwardly smirking at how her words almost made him recoil in surprise, Naru slowly sat up, groaning slightly as she did so. In a way, you could say her brush with death had opened her eyes, changing her outlook on life almost completely. No longer would she run away from her budding feelings, as she'd come to realize just how short life really was, especially with a profession like theirs.

Granted, what she felt for the elder of the two Uchiha boys wasn't quite love—at least not yet—but it was certainly close enough. Only time would tell whether or not it grew into something more, but for the time being she was more than content. She had her comrades, her family, but most of all, she had...Itachi.

Yes, she was more than content.

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A/N: D'awwwwww. Such a sappy scene there at the end, but it felt good to write it. Still, while both of them have realized their feelings for each other, it won't be all flowers and bunnies for the two from here on out. You can say I'll put their relationship to the test, starting with next chapter. I know I didn't cover the actual assassination of Gatou in this chapter, instead focusing on some other things, but that's what next chapter is also for! It'll come in some flashbacks, as well as dialogue between characters, but eventually all the pieces will fall into place.

With that being said, yes, this is now a Naru/Itachi ficlet (H8ers BEGONE!1!), so for those of you who were rooting for that pairing, you can party till the moon comes crashing down (IE forever, since the sun will swallow up the earth before that happens). Still, I would like it if I could receive some constructive criticism on how I pushed the two together. Stuff like: was it believable, given the circumstances? Did the scenes flow okay, or were they choppy and hard to read? etc.

Like I mentioned in the above paragraphs, next chappy will most likely have part 1 of the conclusion of the Wave Arc, with part 2 following shortly afterwards. Also, the fall of Gatou will be covered in greater detail, as well as Yuugao/Itachi/Anko's sides of the storming of his keep. Whether I'll have to stretch that over multiple chapters, though, I don't know yet.

Here's to using a vacuum cleaner to suck up the plot bunnies,

-ZGS


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